Speak No Evil, Hear No Evil, See No Evil
by StormyTitan7
Summary: A for once successful escapade has turned sour for the Leblanc Syndicate. Can they regain what they have lost before their luck runs out? New rivals, and a malicious evil rises to stand in their way, but the Leblanc Syndicate shall conquer all! Rated T for mild language, action, and crude humor. Read, review, and above all, enjoy.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: After a passing glance at a certain Charmed episode that I didn't actually sit down and watch all the way, I was hit with a wonderful idea to put the Leblanc Syndicate through yet another mishap adventure. **

**Enjoy and please, REVIEW, I'm rather excited about this one. ^_^**

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_**Speak No Evil, Hear No Evil, See No Evil**_

_Chapter One: The Leblanc Syndicate (For Once) Sadly Triumphs._

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"Ah!" A certain blonde-haired and sexy sphere hunter gave out a sharp cry of disgust before screwing her small eyes shut and rasping with a loud squeal, "I _hate _the damp!"

"Huh?" Her two underlings, a tall blue coated gunner and a purple and maroon clad warrior, both lifted their heads in unison in response to their boss's distress. A distress that they were quite familiar with, in fact, being that it was something that occurred every time they entered a cave or, such as in this case, a forgotten ruin.

"What are you two staring at?" Leblanc put her hands on her hips, bringing them down from where they had earlier shot up beside her head after she stepped in the gooey puddle. Yevon knows what it was, and that was the main contributor to her repulsion. Well, that and the fact that she always hated damp areas to begin with.

Readjusting her weight, her eyes shifting from one faithful follower to the other, she finally crossed her arms in the silence from the two and gave an abrupt order, "Then stop wasting time and _move it!_"

The men quickly turned to her command and started to walk deeper into the slimy and broken hallway leading, down into the depths of another piece of the long destroyed city, Zanarkand.

Leblanc's high heels clicked with harsh breaks in the otherwise quiet of the ruin before she resumed her place in front and between her two employees. Once in her rightful position, she continued to lead the way down into the shadows.

It came to mind that the trio may have been disturbing what was silent for over hundreds of years. The leader and the gunner noted this in their heads, and the warrior too for that matter, only in not so many words. Besides the dripping of water from the cracked ceiling, nothing seemed to be active in this place, save themselves, and it was wise to suppose that it probably had been that way for decades now.

Occasionally as they walked though, something did seem to stir beside themselves in the hallways. But, when either of the two men looked in that direction, nothing was there and the other had never sensed it as the other had. It was always too far, always just out of earshot, but glimpses and whispers of it seemed to catch one or the others attention.

Ormi shook himself after another time that happened, his voice not as loud as was usual of him and surprisingly flat and low in his throat, "Jeez, this place gives me the creeps."

Logos continued to look down where Ormi had claimed to hear something shift, seeing nothing. He sighed heavily through his nose, tiring of this dingy trip already, before something wicked flashed through his sharp mind. He turned and frowned toward the thick-boned warrior, "Ormi," He slurred, "Now, don't tell me you actually believe in what they say about places like this…"

"Huh?" Ormi's head popped up, his thick brows lifting, "Whut do they say?"

Logos tilted his head, thoroughly enjoying himself, as he peeked out of the corner of his sharp squinted eyes to his stouter companion, "Oh, so you haven't heard?"

A bit of Ormi's temper started to smolder, "Would youse just tell me, huh?"

Leblanc rolled her eyes, totally reading what the gunner was doing. She choose to be silent, knowing this little immature trick would be over soon enough. But nonetheless, she wished for a moment that she had two actual grown men at her side instead of overgrown teenagers.

Logos's voice was deep and much like a storyteller with a haunted tale spinning from his lips as he gradually hunched his shoulders more forward, creeping towards the warrior, "A dark and malicious evil slinks through the mucus of destroyed cities, feeding off of unwary and stupid travelers or treasure hunters, and sucking out their very souls. They say no weapon can harm it, nor any magic, and no shield can guard you, because it's not of our world. Nothing can stop it from coming and completely obliterating all that enters its domain."

He paused for dramatic effect, trying to recall more 'details', as was gestured by his thoughtful hand to his chin, though in reality he was just pulling the story from the air, "Some people say all that remains of those eaten are the blood oozing on the walls or their last moment's scream echoing through the stone for all eternity."

The Syndicate giant gulped and Logos straightened himself with a victorious smirk and a bland voice that said, "Or so I've heard at least."

Ormi's eyes looked both ways to the shiny coating on either bluish-black wall before hurrying to catch up with his swiftly leaving teammates. His head was low as he checked for signs of any creature that could do as described for a long time as they continued to journey farther down the broken stairs and ancient corridors.

"Y-youse guys sure youse didn't just hear that?" Ormi weakly stuttered after he swore he heard a shuffling down the hallway behind them. Too close for comfort.

Leblanc let out a light groan before moving her flashlight across two doors in the hall, the forward direction blocked by fallen-in stone. She sighed and pulled out a piece of paper with coordinates on it before skimming over the information even as the warrior trembled.

Logos scratched his face, a palm holding down his mouth and hiding an evil grin.

Ormi peered down into the darkness, muscles spring-loaded to defend himself in however way he could, though it would be a useless gesture if what people said was true.

Logos observed his cohort's unease and suddenly flinched and promptly yelped, "Good Yevon, what was that?"

"WHA-? Where? What?" Ormi's head madly flew around in all directions, his fists raising up in front of his body.

Logos stared, horrified, down the hallway before slowly relaxing his tense shoulders, "Hrm, perhaps it was nothing-" He said cautiously and a nasty gleam in slanted eyes.

Ormi slowly let out a puff of air and lowered his hands, "Huu-, Buddy don' work me up, alright? I already tol' youse this place is giving me's dah creeps."

Leblanc roughly sighed and let her eyes drift over the coordinates again, trying her best to ignore her two underling's shenanigans. Ormi backed up a shaking step when a drop of water echoed loud and eerily through the halls. His hands nervously twitching, his ears detected a sound behind that sounded a lot like- "Snrk!"

Turning around on his heel to see what kind of beast would make such a sound, Ormi looked up just in time to see Logos's shoulders shaking with repressed snickering, slender blue-gloved hands holding his stomach and covering his mouth. The warrior's brows lowered into his eyes, and his mouth pushed up into a pursed frown, "Hey!"

Logos snorted before letting out a long breath to release the pent up air in his gut, a slight tear under his right eye from holding in the laughter. "You're such an idiot."

"I's didn't buy that I hope youse know!" Ormi blared to the blue back that he had to squint through the dimness to see.

The gunner gave a glance over his shoulder, a small curve to the corner of his lips, "Ormi, you not only bought it, but you paid more than what it was worth!"

"Oh, would you two shut up!" Leblanc barked, tired of listening already, before pointing her flashlight down the right turn out of three options, "Now follow me."

"Right Boss," Both replied as dutifully as always, though Ormi grumbled a bit and Logos sounded just a tad bit cheerier, at least for his grumpy self.

The wetness of the Zanarkand ruin slowly ebbed and soon a cool draft passed by the three, swishing their clothes against their bodies wherever it could. Logos slowly brought a loose sleeved arm from his face from the sudden onslaught of chill before hopping right behind his female leader and plodding partner, who didn't seem to care about the change in temperature and continued on.

It seemed like they were down there forever already, and nothing visually changed from where they had begun. A shared thought started to worm its way into all the Syndicate's minds before their footsteps suddenly turned from dusty scuffles to echoing clomps that startled them.

Leblanc pulled the flashlight up to revolve around the dry cavernous room that they had entered, the ancient and time-coated details revealed in its glow.

Ormi drew out a long whistle before placing sizable hands on his wide hips, staring up at the room he could see from the beam of Leblanc's flashlight. The gunner squinted and circled slowly to take in every aspect of his surroundings before muttering, "Impressive."

"Let's keep moving," Leblanc was just as amazed by the once-possible Zanarkand ballroom they had chanced upon as the two men were, but was far more quicker to get her mind back on track. Nooj being a factor in that.

Keeping to what she said, Leblanc ventured further into the room and skimmed the pretty ruined walls for another way to continue forward. The light glided over ghostly pictures of the past, ripped and ruined curtains and hangings, broken tables and pottery, before reaching the well carved frame of a door.

"Ah," Leblanc began to say before her light stopped on a pale face that glowered at her through hard red eyes in the center of the blackened and shadowed doorway.

A scream ripped through her lips before her feet leapt back, slamming her body into the two men's chests behind her, who also let out their own cries of fear.

It took only a second, but by that time the damage was already done. Leblanc's eyes narrowed before sliding the light's point to the other two that was with the new found person, "What are you Dullwings doing here?" She demanded.

"Same as you I should think," Paine, the one whose gloomy face first came out of hiding, tilted her tight black clad hips to the side.

"Did we scare you?" Yuna asked with hesitant humor and with a slight apologetic tone.

"Scared?" Leblanc's bold voice echoed before she leaned her head back hard, "Ha! Why would I be scared of you three?"

"I don't know…" Rikku waved her butt and giggled, "You guys looked pretty scared to me."

"_Surprised_ is the word you're looking for little girl," Logos crossed his arms irritably before kicking his foot out to the side to angle his body from them as he glared.

Paine shook her head, "Whatever."

"No! Not 'whatever'!" Leblanc gripped the flashlight hard in her hand before pulling out her fan in her other hand and gripping it harder, "You brats better just get out of our way! These sphere waves belong to the Leblanc Syndicate!"

"Oh," Yuna folded her hands behind her back and lightly swayed, her tone soft and innocent, "You can keep the sphere waves."

"Yeah!" Rikku pawed the air with her hands and leaned forward, her feet nearly running in place, "But the _spheres_ are gonna be ours!"

With that, the three teenagers turned out of the stream of light and bolted through the door and into deep darkness. Leblanc let out a growl of aggravation before turning to the pair behind her, shrieking, "What are you just standing around for? After them before they get the sphere first _again!_"

"Yes Boss!" The two jumped into action and they began the pursuit of annoying Gullwings that had been stealing their prizes especially so in the last several weeks. The last four were nabbed right out of their hands as a matter of fact. But this prize was just too sweet to lose this time.

The computer at home nearly fried from the sheer sudden power of the wave that was coming from the far corner of Zanarkand, deep below in its core. It was so big that it probably wasn't just one sphere either. And a sphere from Zanarkand always was worth a good amount of gil, for any buyer.

Multiple, rare, expensive, and high in demand spheres in one simple grab? Of course the Leblanc Syndicate wouldn't waste time in getting after it!

However, it should figure that the Gullwings wouldn't either.

The Syndicate was right behind the girls in short time, jumping over fallen stone and broken pillars, just as the Gullwings in front of them did moments before. Logos reached out with his long arms and grasped the warrior girl's shoulder, slowing her down, and received a quick and mercilessly crack in the nose from the hilt of her blade as a result.

His fingers loosened and he pinched his nose before lurching back into the chase as his Boss and Ormi zoomed past him. Leblanc's face fiercely determined, and the warrior's arms pumping high.

Down farther into the dark hallway, three more bodies crouched in the sealed mouth of a great door, a menacing face decorating its front and warning all to stay away by its demonic presence. The tallest of the forms turned to look down the hallways with, at first, mild interest to what seemed like a few meaningless time loosened rocks jumbling and falling to the ground, before he heard the accompanying voices and racket that proved otherwise.

"What the hell?" A deep mature voice slipped from the man's mouth before he peered at his two cohorts with a lifted light blond brow, "You are hearing this, aren't you?"

"It seems we are not the only ones that have detected the sphere waves, Dardel." The skinny man crouched in front of the lock slowly stood, carefully unbending his knees, before dislodging his lock pick and standing up, "So much for a simple mission. Ah well, let's see what kind of jokes think they can take a sphere from us this time…"

"Wait, be nice, Reo" Dardel smiled cruelly, "We don't want to be discouraging to our competitors, do we?"

"Oh, of course not," A voice, smooth as silk and sultry, flicked out of the darkness and a woman, slender, lithe, and graceful, revealed herself, "But, you know, I think it's a good thing they showed up. Don't you?"

"Hmm," Dardel turned his head, narrowing his blackish eyes, as he mused over the woman's words. Finding it a bit curious, he shook his head and flicked a blonde ponytail over his shoulder to trail down his back, "I don't quite understand what you mean, Arlayla."

"I don't remember your memory being this bad, Dardel," The woman tilted her head and her plump mouth opened up in a teasing smile, "And you know my research is unmatched by any. You do remember what I found, don't you?"

"You said there was a high possibility that the curse associated with the spheres was just a myth." Dardel pointed out, "In fact, I _clearly _remember you saying from those beautiful lips of yours that it was more likely than not, just that, a myth; a story to further protect the spheres. You even suggested we not even trouble ourselves over it."

"Ah," Arlayla clicked her tongue, "But, in the case that it is, let the others get the brunt force of the curse and we'll just take the prize and go."

She fingered a bead that hung down from a string on her fitted top, a dipping neck line revealing her ample cleavage, and crossed her legs under her skirt, a line split up either side of her thighs nearly to her hip bones. She smiled her ruby lips before brushing a bit of her full wild hair to the side, as Dardel nodded his agreement to her not-so-friendly proposal.

The two men gathered their gear and hid them well behind a pile of rubble as the voices earlier heard, got louder. Arlayla slowly lowered herself behind the men, also hidden amongst the gear, and waited just as they did. Finally, bodies could be seen to match the commotion they had overheard.

"Hey!" Rikku jumped onto Logos's back as they finally pushed ahead of them, "You can't run ahead of us!"

"Let go!" Logos jumped high before taking his shoulder and jerking it to the side to topple the Al Bhed from his back.

"Come on!" Leblanc bit off in his direction before grabbing Yuna's braid and pulling back on it with all the strength in her arm, shouting, "Oh, no you don't!"

Yuna opened her mouth both in pain and surprise before falling back to the floor as Leblanc zipped past her.

"That wasn't fair!" Rikku whined and stopped to pick up her cousin as the gunner darted off to the side of them, following his boss's heels. Paine came to assist as well and lend a hand to Yuna to hoist her off the ground.

Ormi wheezed loud before pumping his arms even faster to bound after his friends that was disappearing down the hall.

Leblanc took a peek over her shoulders before shouting back to the girls behind them, "All's fair in sphere hunting, Amateurs!"

"Boss!" Logos held his hand out to her back, just out of reach, "Look out!"

Leblanc gasped and turned to see what he was so concerned about, her face meeting with sudden, bruising, pain. She bounced back, landing in the gunner's arms as he opened them up to catch her, before she pushed up out of them and was back on her feet again in anger, "What was that?"

"Erm, Boss, it's appears to be a…door," Logos's perfect vision examined every inch of the heavy metal that Leblanc had ran into full speed, and miraculously, recovered from so quickly.

"Hh, hh, hh," Ormi finally stopped behind them, his breath sharp rasps for desperate air, "He-he-here."

"Well," Leblanc rubbed her nose before patting her forehead, then snapped her fingers, "Open it up boys!"

Ormi gulped once before stepping forward and putting his palms flat on the outside of the door, no knob showing an easier way. He pushed, and like an old barricade door, it was shoved out of the way, and the already picked lock dropped to the floor with a loud _clunk_.

To the sound, Logos peered down at the lock before picking it up, turning it in his gloved hand, and pinching his eyes at the non-rusted parts, as he expected it to have for it to drop without further tampering. Leblanc pushed into the room before turning around at Logos and tersely screamed, "Quit dawdling!"

"Erm, yes Boss!" Logos's neck snapped up and the lock fell from his hand as he stood to join them. The Gullwings made it to the door frame in that instant as Leblanc walked straight up to the middle of the room, an interesting sphere stand shimmering in silvery light that was produced from the floor.

The stand was a smooth white glowing carving of three monkeys, each holding a sphere in one way or another. The top carved monkey covered its mouth and held its other hand above its head, cupping a bright white sphere. Its hand-like feet was somewhat wrapped around the second monkey's head, standing on it, and that monkey was covering both its ears with its hands and held a second sphere still between its hand-like feet. The third monkey was leaning forward, the second monkey sitting on its back, and this monkey covered its eyes with long fingers. A curved tail arched up into the air before coiling around another white sphere.

Leblanc's lips curved as she grasped the top sphere, three in total, glowing in a bright white light she had never seen or even heard of before against the pearly stand. The effect of the spheres were rather heavenly, and would certainly fetch a huge price for the rare look of them alone, much less the treasures inside of them.

Leblanc plucked it off and turned with it in her hands, surprised no fiend or guardian beast of some sort popped out of nowhere to defend the stand. But, then again, the maze like path coming in was a great defense as it was. Leblanc smiled, the monkey's hand that held the sphere before bare behind her as she turned away.

Ormi clutched the second sphere and forced it out from between the tightly placed feet and beamed at the shiny treasure. Logos took his time to ease out the third sphere from the tricky coil, but managed with no possible damage to the sphere.

They looked up near in unison and with matching gloating auras as Yuna's inched her way in, shoulders dropping, with Rikku openly pouting behind her, and Paine standing in the doorway, seemingly stoic, but it was still easy to see that she was none too pleased.

"Ha!" Leblanc threw the white glowing sphere up into the air and caught it with her other hand, "Finally the Dullwings get what they deserve! A defeat."

She gave the sphere a light kiss before a slow clapping interrupted her triumphant moment.

"Well done," Dardel smiled through thin lips, his hands slowly coming to a stop on clapping as he continued to speak and Reo and Arlayla unveiled themselves from the curtain of darkness behind their leader.

Leblanc jutted her hip out to the side and furrowed her brows, her feet still planted in front of the dais with the sphere stand. Ormi and Logos flinched before stiffening at the mysterious newcomer ruining their long awaited victory over the three teenagers, sad as that was to admit. The three new arrivals met the challenging eyes with threatening faces of their own, and stopped just short of behind the Gullwings, who were looking rather confused at the unexpected presence of them as the Leblanc Syndicate were.

"And who are you?" Leblanc flicked her chin at those that had walked in after the clapping finally ceased.

"Oh, excuse me," Dardel gave a light bow of his head. The Gullwings, in the meantime, backed into the room to get a safe distance away from the group, unable to tell if they were friend or foe.

The two other groups took note of the fancy seemingly untouched clothes (even when they must have walked through the dingy labyrinth same as them) and the shiny boots each wore. More importantly, was a emblem on the leader's arm, the woman's skirt and on a front pouch of the shorter lanky man with them. An orange circle seemingly glowing within a white circle against the black of their outfits grabbed their attention as the leader, surely since he was front and center talking, introduced them.

"This is my sphere hunting group," Dardel smiled, icily, and he held his hands out to his sides, " The _Chasers_. Perhaps you have heard of us?"

The sphere hunters continued to stare, the Syndicate quiet as they stood by the sphere stand, before the Gullwings shrugged and shook their heads negatively.

Dardel lost his grin and his eyes darkened, "No matter," He said low and almost menacingly, "We don't care much to know who you are either. Though we've heard of your pathetic groups a _few _times when you do something worth talking about. Now," He extended his hand out, long sleek fitting sleeves rustling against his light arms as he moved. "The spheres if you will."

Ormi made a unbelieving, loud, and very rude, snort before Leblanc switched the sides where her weight was balanced, her arms crossing, before snapping, "And why would we, love? We got it first so, it's ours. Now get lost before we make you. "

"How very unprofessional," Arlayla nearly scolded, "I would think that a group such as yours would at the very least stop relying on intimidation and extortion after a while."

Leblanc's temper flared at the gall of the woman saying her group was 'unprofessional.' Leblanc narrowed her eyes, "What do you know? Either way it won't get you these spheres."

"Well," Dardel's eyes gained a glimmer of something unpleasant before he brought his hands to his sides and flicked towards the stand, his teammates stiffening and plastering smirks on their lips, "Perhaps for now you hold the spheres. But, as you so accurately put it earlier, 'All's fair in sphere hunting'."

Reo drew out dual-daggers and charged, zigzagging right through the Gullwings, and Arlalya whipped out a spear and soared through the air towards the pedestal. The Syndicate barely had time to react, and they pulled out their weapons while juggling the spheres in their hands just in the nick of time to meet the challenge.

"Wait! Don't fight." Yuna yelled and the warning fell to deaf ears as the Chasers forced the Leblanc Syndicate to separate, backing them off and away from the stand.

Leblanc side-jumped away from the snobby woman that dared to insult her group before Arlayla took to the chase with eyes gleaming on the sphere in Leblanc's gloved hand. Reo jumped over the stairs with ease before targeting the slowest looking member of the Syndicate and deciding to quickly hack him up for mincemeat. Logos, who's back was forced away from Ormi's by the thievish Chaser, got one revolver out before a shiny rapier slashed across the gun's side, where a half second earlier was where his chest hovered in the air. Dardel sneered at him and dove right into a thrust for his neck.

"I don't think they heard you…" Rikku hopelessly informed her cousin, before muttering part to herself, "Meanies…"

"They mean business," Paine observed before crossing her arms tightly to her chest, "Should we interfere?"

Yuna straightened her back and took the face the other two girls knew well. A face that meant business as well as held unbeatable determination. Yuna nodded once before pulling out her guns, the two girls gladly following suit.

The Gullwings leaped eagerly for the fight before a force crashed into them from behind, stealing their breath and knocking them off their feet to skid face-first against stone.

Leblanc slashed the air and caught the woman's swinging spear, before frowning towards Arlayla's smug face. The woman pushed, with more strength than Leblanc expected, and off balanced Leblanc into taking a few stumbling steps backwards. There was a light chuckle from the Chaser before Arlayla spun her staff and leapt forward, Leblanc baring her teeth and raising up her fan to meet her.

"Wah!" Ormi ducked underneath the slashing spear end, Leblanc's head raising at his sudden appearance, before he hopped back to avoid more slicing knives ready to reduce him to meaty slivers. Reo barely took notice or care to his teammate before jumping over her head and planting a foot into the warrior's face.

Leblanc had to scramble to lift her fan up in time to catch the quickly executed jab for her chest, before Arlayla slid her hands on the shaft of her weapon to draw closer to the blade of her spear and to the blonde leader. A thin hand came out from behind her back and she reached for the sphere Leblanc held.

"No you don't!" Leblanc yanked it back as a zipping line of light flew over her head and pinged off of the stone walls, momentarily stopping the woman who continued to stretch for the prize and hold her weapon back.

Leblanc heard another bullet fire and zoom past before there was a crack and a familiar voice snarling an insult before another crack cut him off.

Arlayla swung her weapon out and brought it back, letting it slip through her fingers to gather more length as the force of motion took it towards Leblanc's shoulders. The Syndicate leader ducked and grasped the sphere tighter in her hand as she made a swift retreat toward the pedestal again.

Arlayla was bumped by a backward-jogging Ormi, who was still trying to avoid a few slashes to the body. She cursed at him and switched her targets to hit him flat across the back of the shoulders with the shaft of her spear and kicked behind his knees to knock him down. Agile as a cat, she leaped out of way of his tumbling to the ground with a mean grin as Reo closed in.

Leblanc took the time the moment Arlayla was distracted to check over her shoulder and find where the gunner had got himself into trouble, since no bullets had been fired after the two she had heard earlier.

She scanned her line of vision and swiftly landed on the easily distinguishable gunner, and began to turn around as soon as she found him. The Chaser's leader had him by the front of his shirt, his revolver's currently no where to be seen, and was getting his face bloodied by a fancy hilt of Dardel's rapier. His teeth were red colored as he gritted them and his thin blue gloved hands punched into Dardel's stomach between cracks to his face.

Leblanc began to chant before a long whine met her ears and stopped her short.

"Boss!" Ormi clutched a dagger sticking out of his beefy arm as he sat on his backside on the ground, his shield held out in front of him but not in a place to reposition quickly. Reo pulled his arm far back, another shiny red-dripping knife held in his fist as his feet danced around the protected area of the shield.

She changed directions and caught a sharp pain to her lower back from the stick of a spear and heard a whipping sound signaling another blow her way. Leblanc spun and caught the spear head shooting to run her through in the curve of her fan, arm shaking momentarily from the shock of the sudden halt.

Arlayla's pouty lips pulled up into a mocking pucker, "Wuzzah matter?" She nearly baby-talked, undermining Leblanc further, "Can't trust your men to handle themselves?"

"Shut up!" Leblanc bit before throwing the spear aside with her weapon and slashed the air, catching the air blades and tossing them into the Chaser, who flew off her feet with the force of them. She whirled around on her heels and called, "Boys!"

"Err!…" Rikku squirmed under the weight on her back, her Al Bhed features smoldering with emotion,"Get off!"

"I don't think I will," A young man, judging by the sound of his voice, jeered as he sat on the balls of his feet, planted on the thief's lower back. Rikku's two friends were sadly no better off as she while they struggled under the weight of a Chaser underling, two other Chasers waiting beside in case that their comrades should topple.

Paine growled under her breath, mostly to her friends, "It's going to be hurt time, soon, very soon."

Rikku struggled further before nearly squeaking, "That'd be great!"

Yuna let out a few muffled sounds before looking up to the pedestal to see Leblanc pull her fan over her head to chant. The Gullwings froze, as did the Chasers, as bolts of lightning dashed around the room to land repeatedly on the target.

Logos found his opportunity and swung his sharp elbow across the leader's face as Dardel motionlessly watched Arlayla take the brunt end of a spell. He let out a sharp hiss and the gunner picked up the sphere into his long fingers from the ground and dashed back towards his Boss, only slowing once to grab his dropped single revolver from the ground to shove it back in place on his belt with the other one.

Reo took a spell to the head as well and Ormi limped back up to his faithful spot behind his boss and next to his best friend as Leblanc held a victorious face to all in the room.

"Don't mess with the Leblanc Syndicate!" She announced triumphantly and spared a glance to the pair behind her to see the shiny white spheres still in their hands before running towards the door, sure the two would follow her.

"Damnit!" Dardel cussed and angrily called to the henchmen holding and standing around the Gullwings with an aggravated swish of his finger, "Don't let them leave this room!"

The ones holding the Gullwings down seemed somewhat confused for a moment, gauging whether if it would be productive to let the girls up (who would probably help those escaping) or keep them held down. Without hesitation though, the others standing idly by swept into action and bee-lined to the door to block them inside.

Ormi put his shield out in front of his body and picked up his bumbling pace to hurtle himself through those fast enough to get ahead of them and let his other two group mate's follow him straight out.

Leblanc stopped for a sheer second to slap her ass mockingly to those that stared at her retreating back before leaping out with the boys.

"Get-!" Dardel started to shout out before a blinding light, one that forced surprised cries from both the Gullwings, who started to get up after the ones holding them took their chances to release them, and from the Chasers as it attacked their eyes.

_**AH HA HA HA HA HA! **_

A deep voice rang through the air and the entire ruin trembled and shook as the unseen owner of the laughter continued his apparent satisfaction.

The Gullwings stood up before Paine turned to the others, "We have to get out of here. The place is going to come down!"

Yuna and Rikku, coming to much of the same fearful conclusion, followed her as she ran to the door. The Chasers getting the same message and dashed towards it as well, rocks and other wreckage falling from the ceiling in huge tumbling pieces as they made their escape.

The light still shone as brightly as before and the teams ran through it with no difficulty, though seeing through it was impossible.

The Chasers continued down the hall before the three main members skidded to a stop.

"Dardel!" Arlayla called ahead and turned before she could finish saying, "The spheres!"

"Grab them and leave the others to the curse," Dardel spied the three spheres on the ground, as Arlayla already had, and jerked his head at Reo towards them. Wisps of power and light flowed up from the orbs to the high hallway ceiling where it wrapped around the Syndicate struggling in its unearthly grasp.

His two cohorts sprinted and snatched the treasures up, hesitating only for a few moments for possible punishment for doing so, before jerking them away and fleeing down the hallway after their leader.

The wisps connecting the three bodies above to the spheres snapped abruptly and the bodies held their place in the air for a moment longer, the broken tails of the wisps sweeping up through space towards them.

The tails met the Syndicate and coiled around the rest of their bodies, covering them in a ghostly glow that started to grow in intensity the more they tried to free themselves from it.

Yuna almost ran past them before circling back around when she realized the Syndicate was still there, in the crumbling ruin. She yelled, "We've got to help them!" to Rikku and Paine before another blinding flash filled the dark hallway up to the brim. Paine snapped her hand out and pulled Yuna a few steps back, pointing up to where the Syndicate once was moments before and showing her the now empty space.

"Where'd-" Yuna began before the black clad warrior cut her off-

"We don't have time. We have to get out, Yuna." Her voice was forceful and was appropriate, considering the danger of falling stone and closed walkways that was rumbling all around them. Yuna allowed herself one more peek, no familiar competitors coming into sight when she did, before she followed her teammate with the excellent point, out of the ruins.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I'm rather excited for this one already. Hope you can look forward to it too!**

* * *

**-.-.-.-  
**

_**Speak No Evil, Hear No Evil, See No Evil. **_

_Chapter 2: What Just Happened? Now, That's a Decent Question._

* * *

Leblanc still felt the strangling power of the strange spheres as she finally started to claw her way through unconsciousness. The sound of water lapping against the lonely dingy rocks further coaxed her to wake, find out where she was at, and determine her next course of action. What just happened wasn't expected, and they probably lost the spheres, but she couldn't do what needed to be done next until she got up. Or so her mind kept screaming to her lethargic and disregarding body.

Like forcing herself awake in the morning, Leblanc squirmed and pulled her eyelids tight against her eyes to dutifully push herself from sleep. She fidgeted against the damp rock her back laid on, finding instant disgust in the slimy texture it had, before she pulled her shoulders up to stretch and wake her body up with her reviving mind.

The sleepy shadows that framed her thoughts slowly ebbed and she could feel her fingers twitching as she pulled herself up into a sitting position from where she laid. Her eyes slowly opened to the dim light of a cloudy Zanarkand before she closed them shut again, even that light hurting her vision.

"_Ugh" _Leblanc moaned before her body seized up. Her eyes widened and her pupils shrunk in shock, something wasn't right about-

"_Ah."_ Her mouth opened wide with alarm before she tried again, and again, _"Ah. Ah. Ah."_

She felt the words in her throat, knew her mouth moved and opened to form them, but despite that, no sound slipped from her lips. She gripped her throat to feel for anything out of the ordinary and found only her smooth skin against her fingers.

"_What the-? Why can't I talk!" _Leblanc coughed, no sound coming out of that either, and tried to make any noise at all. But everything was silent, only the water lapping up against the stone she perched upon, separate from all other pieces of ruin.

In one more desperate attempt, she screwed her eyes shut and screamed at the top of her lungs, "_Boys!" _

A lonely wind passed by to lick around her damp body and chill her, the howl mocking her lack of voice, the lack of an echo, and her lost ability to speak at all. She pulled her arms around her body for a bit of warmth before searching every isolated ruin that lay half-submerged in the Zanarkand waters for signs of life. Neither of the two men was anywhere to be seen.

In the seemingly far distance, the main part of Zanarkand rose from the horizon and towered, the sun peeking behind it as it was setting and made a silhouette of the once-city. The dark grayish tan clouds inched lazily along, dispersed thin to cover the entire blue of the sky, and Leblanc sighed silently into the atmosphere.

_Just great…_

The question rose to the surface of her mind like a bubble in water. It wiggled but it was still undeniably raised despite the other questions that tried to rise with it. _What had just happened? _

_Where's my voice? Where are the spheres? Where is Logos and Ormi?_

Leblanc brought her arms harder against her body as the wind whistled past and toward the hulky shadows in the distance.

_What just happened? _

Repeating it not only brought no answers whatsoever, but wasted time. Leblanc knitted her brows in the silent aggravation of the fact before turning around on the slippery rock to find a suitable place to start looking for her two underlings. At least with all of them there they could figure out _something, _anything, to do next about…whatever just happened.

It was obvious it would be no use calling out to them. She couldn't see them, so most likely they wouldn't hear her anyways if she could talk. But, she felt just that prick of fear from knowing she couldn't speak for whatever reason.

Without her voice- there were no spells. Without spells, and without wherever her fan had gone, she was defenseless if some fiend decided to take a snap at her. Leblanc stomped her foot against the shivers and took the first sure steps off the friendless rock to hop to the next. Then she picked up her pace and leapt to another. A chain of irregular stones sticking up through the gray clammy water led the way to a taller part of ruin, the top part of a building, which would be a good place to start her search for her men.

Because if a fiend did crawl out of the water, she'd at least need them around.

Leblanc gripped her throat and attempted one last weak sound, to no avail. If only she had an Echo Screen handy she might not be so nervous.

Still, got to find the boys first, then go home and fix her problem before even thinking about getting those damn spheres again. She lowered her hand and jumped to the next narrow sliver of ancient wall.

And when she had those spheres in her hands again from whichever annoying group took it, be that the amateurish Dullwings or the snobbish Chasers, victory would taste so much sweeter than it had previously.

But first, the boys.

They had to be near here somewhere. Leblanc continued her search as the silence, her own greatly disturbing her, pressed on.

* * *

Ormi snuffled, his great chest heaving with each hefty breath, before he mumbled something incoherent and rolled his giant mass to his side on the cobwebby floor he had landed on. A time weakened ceiling allowed his body easy entry into the ruined home, and the knock on his head was enough to make him drunk with sleep. He laid under the hole he had made coming in, the dust around him in a circle pattern from the force of his landing, and the disturbed dust motes were still floating in the air through the scant cloudy light that entered from the newly made skylight.

The Syndicate warrior let out an obnoxious snore before scratching his chest with his fat digits, grumbling in slumber, and seemingly deciding to wake much later.

Not far from him, a nasally groan slithered out from under a pile of broken wood and tattered cloth before a lanky, dusty, arm shot through the pieces and heaved them aside. The clattering of the thin wood sections was followed by another displeased growl in the back of a gunner's throat and the owner of the growl rose from the ancient frail framing that he had crashed through on his own landing.

"For the love of Lady Luck-" Logos pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head in an attempt to expel the extreme headache pounding in his skull. He felt his way down his arms and roughly brushed away every grey scrap clinging to his coat that his fingers met before patting down the dust that marked his clothes.

Blinking in the apparent darkness, he patted until he felt satisfied enough to deal with the filthy feeling and rose shakily to his feet, his arms extended in front of him to feel his way along. He took the first tentative steps into the room he was trapped in before his curled shoe caught a shank of wood. He jolted with surprise at it being there, before he fought for his balance and lost, tumbling back to the dirty ground hard.

Logos bitterly spat out the taste of Zanarkand-ancient dust and pushed himself up on his elbows to try again, calling out into pitch blackness as he did, "Boss? Ormi!"

Nothing came to his ears as he came back to his feet and he wobbled unsure for a second, arms feeling all around him, touching nothing, before he stilled his extended arms beside him.

"Hrm," He took a few more futile squints into the complete darkness before reaching into his coat for a lighter he carried. With luck, he probably wouldn't catch anything on fire as soon as he flicked it, but it was too difficult to stumble around and not at least try.

Logos pulled it out before it slipped from his fingers and plunked against the stone. Cursing, he swept down on his knee to the floor to feel around for it where he thought he heard it fall. His hand skimmed the dust, drawing senseless shapes in the otherwise untouched floor, before the gunner realized he wasn't going to touch anything where he was at.

He stood to walk a few uncertain steps forward in pursuit of the light source, before once again his foot caught on something, this time something much larger, and flung him forward over the obstruction and hard to the ground.

"Oof!" Logos instantly curled around the pain of landing flat on his face before a sound, truthfully relieving, bumbled into his ear canals.

"Wah? 'ey!"

Ormi shot up with wide eyes at the sudden wake up before finding Logos sprawled on the dry brittle floor. He opened up his mouth in a wide awkward smile before saying, "WELL, HI LOGOS!"

"No need to shout!" Logos clamped the outside of his hood with his hands at the greeting that was practically roared towards him.

"HUH?" Ormi's already incredibly loud voice was even more booming as his face twisted up in confusion. He could feel his words falling out of his thick lips but couldn't hear them. "CAN YOU HEAR ME LOGOS? I DON'T KNOW IF I CAN TALK!"

"I can hear you fine, you idiot!" Logos sat up and pointed his face in the general direction of the shield-wielder. Ormi stared dumbly at the thinner man's lips, moving fast and angry, before half closing one dull eye and lifting his thick black brow, jaw dropping, "WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOUSE, LOGOS!"

"Just stop yelling already!" Logos punched the air towards Ormi's voice, missing by a good few inches, before feeling around on the ground again. Ormi shook his head in disbelief that he couldn't hear before rattling his head violently from side to side and turning his head sideways to rap his skull with his knuckles.

When he looked back up, the gunner was still searching and bit off into his blackness, "Make yourself useful Ormi, and help me find my lighter. I dropped it, and Yevon knows this place is due for some light in one form or another."

"HUH?" Ormi repeated his earlier phrase, still unable to hear anything, before spying what the gunner was doing, "WHAT'CHA LOOKING FOR, LOGOS?"

"My lighter!" Logos reiterated testily and swept his hands over the dust.

Ormi narrowed his small eyes at the gunner's lips, "YOUR LIGHTER?"

"Yes," Logos's brows furrowed and he sat up on his knee again, his mouth twisting downwards as his patience ran thin, "Do I have to spell it out for you to get it? My lighter, Ormi, so we could get some damn light in here!"

"WHAT'CHA WANT YOUSE LIGHTER FOR?" Ormi asked earsplitting loud and Logos groaned and slowly stated, so a certain imbecilic warrior might catch this time-

"To _see_, Ormi," He drew out his sentence, his mouth forming the words carefully to add emphasis to the sound of the words. The warrior nonetheless answered in confusion, "HUH? WHAT DO YOUSE NEED TO SEE?"

"Anything! Wherever we ar- By Yevon's tears!" Logos shook his head irritated and glared in the direction of his annoying partner, "Wouldn't you like to see?"

"BUT I CAN SEE JUST FINE!" Ormi didn't take his eyes off of the gunner's lips, since he couldn't understand him in any other way, "IT AIN'T EVEN NIGHT TIME YET! THERE'S PLENTY OF LIGHT!"

"Start making sense Ormi, I can't see a damn thing!" Logos put two fingers to his temple, his brow twitching with his pounding headache from earlier, renewed and returned tenfold, "And why do you continue to squall like that? It's giving me a wonderful pain to my head, if you don't mind."

Ormi's eyes widened, having no idea what Logos just said, but slowly coming to a conclusion and a horrible one. With excited energy, he roughly grabbed the gunner's arm and pulled him to his feet with him, shouting, "LOGOS ,YOUSE ARE BLIND!"

"What?" Logos brought his head straight back, one side of his lip pulling off to the side of face, "Ormi that's-"

"AND I'S CAN'T HEAR'S A THING!" Ormi pointed to his ears, noticing for the first time that it wasn't just Logos he couldn't hear, but all the other sounds that go even into the most quietest of settings. His own breathing, Logos's breathing, their clothes when they shifted, were all muted to his ears.

Logos took a moment to take it in, before lowering his shoulders and taking a shuddering breath, "What- blind? I can't be blind! Why would I be blind?"

"WHAT?" Ormi, who had difficulty controlling the level of his voice while he could hear anyways, and now completely tone deaf, was even that more clueless. Logos shook his head before stumbling back.

" 'EY! WATCH OUT!" Ormi put his arm out but it was too late as the gunner tripped over another pile of ceiling wreckage that they had brought in with them. Logos continued to shake his head, an incredulous expression on his otherwise unreadable face, before he tried to slowly rise from the floor he found himself sprawled on again.

"Damnit! Of all the luck-" Logos stood and brushed his clothes off with his filthy gloves, only Ormi seeing that he only made his coat worse. He straightened his back before looking to the last place he heard Ormi and gestured with his hand, "We need to go find the Boss."

Ormi stepped back from where he had tried to help his friend up, missing the motion of the gunslinger's mouth to try and decipher the words, and as result mumbled, still slightly loud, "Huh!"

"Oh-" Logos pinched his nose again and let his hand flop down to his side, "Boss! Find."

"GOT IT!" Ormi held up the fingers to signal O.K. and spun on his heels, making for the exit he saw. He was just about up the half broken stairs when he looked over his hulky shoulder in time to see Logos entangle his legs in the dust-covered cloth from the table the gunner had recently smashed on his arrival to the ruined home. The gunner fell forward again and couldn't see enough to catch himself properly, scraping up the sides of his arms on the table's broken pieces in the process of trying to stop his fall, and cursed his condition up and down. Ormi almost sheepishly blushed at his idiocy, and then plodded back to help him to his feet.

"AHH," Ormi took Logos by one arm then reached behind him to steady the other shifting side in his thick fist, "I'LL HELP YOUSE WALK."

"Brilliant." Logos grumbled, "It's not like a blind man couldn't find his way out of a broken ruin by himself." He narrowed his eyes when Ormi shouted another questioning sound and shook his head, "Forget it."

"WE'LL GET SOME EYEDROPS ON OUR WAY HOME." Ormi shouted as he helped his friend execute the stairs, "NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT!"

"Just shut your trap and find the Boss," Logos resisted the urge to plug his ears from the ringing in them, "We'll have some doctor look at your ears too."

"HUH?"

"Find the Boss!" Logos formed the words for him to see but it was still out fast and irritated through his clenched teeth.

"I'S DON'T KNOW WHA YOUSE SAID BUT I'LL JUS' FIND THE BOSS!" Ormi nodded sure of himself and directed Logos, who was groaning cynically, to turn as soon as they made it to the top and to the surface of the far side of Zanarkand again.

* * *

The sun was dipping even farther behind the better part of ruin and Leblanc could see it was a big half-disk against the horizon now. She shook herself and climbed up on a square of a lopsided building. If she could only shout for them, she wouldn't be so worried that she was passing them when the uncovered ruins were more dense and with a lot more hiding places.

She listened for any fiend in the water, and avoided stepping foot in it where she could, and stopped again to recalculate. They couldn't have possibly been that far from her when they landed.

"Oi!"

Leblanc smiled and sighed, no sound coming from it, after hearing that nasally and slightly peeved tone around the corner of the next couple of stony islands. She jumped to the next and skirted around to find both Ormi and Logos, the latter swimming around in the water and slapping the surface for something to hold on to.

"LIZ'IN TO THE SOUND OF MY VOICE, BUDDY! I'S RIGHT ON LAND!" Ormi cupped either side of his mouth and screamed down to Logos bobbing in the water.

"Impossible **not **to listen to your voice as loud as you're being!" Logos spat out the dingy cold water and his teeth chattered while he pushed himself towards Ormi's voice, "And why in the blazes did you just drop me?"

"YOUSE SLIPPED!" Ormi defended before catching sight of Leblanc, "HEY BOSS!"

Leblanc flinched at the volume of his words before looking back down at Logos, who was having a difficult time finding the edge.

"The Boss?" Logos clawed the water and missed the edge of the ruin by a few inches, "Where is she?"

"RIGHT HERE LOGOS!" Ormi pointed, a useless gesture, and bent down to lean out over the edge and grabbed a hold of Logos's sleeve. The gunner went somewhat lax and the warrior hauled him up with hardly any strain. Logos felt the air and asked again, "Where?"

Leblanc lifted a brow up and observed the strange behavior of her two men.

What had happened to them?

"BOSS, YOUSE WON'T BELIEVE THIS, BUT LOGOS CAN'T SEE AND I CAN'T HEAR!" Ormi snapped his fingers by his ears to demonstrate and Logos staring blankly ahead, his thin slanted eyes clouded, was proof enough. Leblanc furrowed her brows and stiffened.

"What should we do?" Logos shook with the chill of the water before standing and crossing his arms over his torso, his shoulders occasionally giving off a shiver as he waited for an answer.

One that Leblanc couldn't give even if she wanted to.

"Boss?" Logos's head swiveled in every direction, unsure on where she was since he hadn't heard from her, "Boss?"

Ormi lifted a brow before watching Leblanc lift up her hand and wave it in front of her mouth, lips moving to words that were left silent. The warrior's eyes widened in near horror, "YOUSE CAN'T TALK?"

"What?" Logos turned to Ormi's voice before shifting his weight uncomfortably, "Splendid. How in the Farplane did this happen to us?"

Leblanc shrugged her shoulders, and Ormi stood still in thought to the question. A very decent question indeed.

"WELL," Ormi flicked his heavy arms hopelessly at his sides, "WHAT ARE WE'S GONNA DO ABOUT IT?"

"I say go home, try to reverse this, and find a way to take those spheres back. Doubtless either the Gullwings or those damn pricks have it now." Logos again blindly tried to place the muted Boss in the dark space around him, only a little place clear from where he knew Ormi stood, "If that's a valid suggestion Boss."

Leblanc nodded and Ormi saw it fit to inform, "SHE NODDED!"

"Good to know," Logos put a finger to his hood again, the shout splitting his skull with a painful headache throb, "And if you don't mind Ormi, stop talking unless out of absolute necessity."

"HUH?"

"No. Talking." Logos mouthed slowly, "You're. Loud. Giving. Me. Headache."

"OH," Ormi shook his head in understanding, "OKAY! I GET IT. I'LL ONLY TALK WHEN I'S NEED'S TO!"

Logos groaned in the back of his throat, drawing it out, before re-crossing his arms, "Hopefully we'll be back to normal in no time."

Leblanc perked slightly, her hip rising to pull her higher, before the gunner frowned and leaned a little back, ruining her moment of enthusiasm.

"-Though I have my doubts," He slurred, "I have a distinct feeling that this isn't some petty effect placed on us by an ordinary fiend." The gunner thoughtfully went over the possibilities and found the most plausible, "Considering how that stand looked, and the spheres we took , I'd say it's some ironic curse placed to protect the spheres."

"WHAT?" Ormi, unable to understand what Logos was saying, and feeling it was important, further prodded the gunner's temper by shouting nearly right in his ear.

"Curse! We've been cursed!" Logos rubbed his ear and glared hard, "The Boss can't speak, you're deaf, and I'm blind as a bat! It's a curse! And the spheres are to blame!"

"YOUSE SAYIN' WE'S BEEN CURSED BY THEM WHITE SPHERES?" Ormi blinked, oblivious, and Leblanc placed fingers to her forehead at the rotten situation they were all in.

A curse. Just perfect. And just when they finally won for once against those Dullwings!

"WELL HOW DO WE GET RID OF IT IF IT IS A CURSE?" Ormi nearly whined afterward and added, "I'S CAN'T BE STUCK LIKE THIS FOREVER!"

"Lady Luck, I hope not!" Logos took a side step away from the warrior, "I'll be deaf _and _blind before too long with your ever flapping mouth!"

"HUH?"

"Agh!" Logos let out a cry of exasperation and defeat before turning his back to the Syndicate warrior and crossing him arms over his damp chest. Ormi stiffened and put a beefy hand on the taller man's shoulder, shouting in a defensive tone, "HEY-!"

Leblanc slapped her hip and out of habit, the two men stiffened (Logos hearing the familiar sound and Ormi seeing it being executed) and ceased anything they were doing. Mouths clamped shut and they looked to where their Boss tapped her foot (Logos able to identify where she was now). The blonde pointed decidedly to the main ruins, jabbing her finger at the lowering sun with emphasized importance, and turned on her high heels to begin the journey.

Logos heard the retreating clicks and was about to open his mouth to question when the warrior seized up his arms and jostled him forward, leading him after their Boss sloppily, and with many near slips back into the water.

Leblanc chewed on her lower lip and fumed with anger that had too many areas to place to just focus on one. The amateur snot-nosed Dullwings? Those stupid stuck-up Chasers? Even at herself for getting them caught up in this? She couldn't find a proper place to put her infuriating emotions and instead of mulling over those questions, she repeated Ormi's earlier one mutely.

_How do we get rid of it? _

That was a decent question. And one that she was set on finding whether it killed her.


	3. Chapter 3

_**-.-.-.-.-  
**_

_**Speak No Evil, Hear No Evil, See No Evil **_

_Chapter 3: A Super Senseless Adventure Begins (With a Side of Salty Nuts)_

* * *

**Plip.**

"Anything?" A gruff voice questioned.

Thin slanted eyes blinked up at the ceiling, but the pupils within them remained unfocused and swimming in clouds.

"Not a thing," Logos shook his head negatively and sighed just as depressingly as his scowling face revealed him feeling. He squinted to try again, but the world was still blanketed in pure darkness. Nothing.

Leblanc stomped her foot since she couldn't scream. Nothing was working! In her anger, she threw the vial that had once contained the mixture of eye drops violently to the wall, shattering it with a loud _**Ksh! **_of broken glass that startled the gunner, who had no way of knowing what had been broken and why.

Ormi flinched at the negative emotion in the room, Leblanc's aggressive aura making him uncomfortable, and Logos's hopelessness making him feel just as depressed.

A ragged sigh interrupted the three highest members of the Syndicate and their inner wars with their emotion, and a Dr. Goon waved for specifically Leblanc's attention. When he was sure he had it, he didn't waste pointless time in waiting for her to answer 'yes?' to continue as he usually did since he considered the circumstances. Instead, he shook his head in dismay and grumbled, "There's nothing I can do for any one of you."

Leblanc tapped her foot with displeasure, her hip jutting out to the side at a sharp angle, and her face showing how ticked she was. The Dr. Goon seemingly didn't notice these details however, and went right on with the bad news.

"Besides the fact you have lost one of your senses, you're completely healthy." At the mix of glares and frowns he received, he held his hands up somewhat defensively before his gravelly voice shot out, "Hey! Hey! This _is _a little out of the field of medical science, you understand. Undoing curses aren't exactly my specialty!"

The faces became just a tinge less unapproachable, though the doctor still felt a good deal of apprehension towards them at the moment, before he cleared his throat. Once he finished coughing, he lidded his eyes and practically signed his own death certificate with his words-

"Since those potions and concoctions didn't work, I'm afraid you might be stuck like that until you find out how to break the curse yourselves."

Logos paused in his mixture of self-pitying, depression, slight fear, and over all hate for the crappy situation to turn serious-faced to the Doctor's voice, his own voice sarcastic as he asked, "Any suggestions?"

"Well," The goon roughly rubbed the back of his craned neck, "You could start by tracking down the Chasers and demanding to know the details about the curse, since they seemed to know about it by what you tell me. Or, you could find the Gullwings and ask-."

Leblanc's hand crashed into the table, clattering, jostling, and displacing almost every object on it, before she leaned dangerously forward and narrowed her eyes. If only she had her words, then the Goon would've got an earful by now.

Ormi stared stupidly at the conversation, barely able to decipher any of it, before he stood up as Leblanc glared at the Dr. Goon's suggestion in a matter to calm the situation (whatever that may have been). Luckily, for the doctor anyway, Leblanc was distracted by the motion and thus her anger was pacified, at least for the moment.

Leblanc returned her part glare to the goon, peeved that they had gotten nowhere and with no sure solution in sight yet, before she leaned back with arms crossed over her torso . She gestured with her chin to dare the goon to continue, but the doctor decided then that he had nothing more to say.

In lieu of the doctor's words, Logos spoke up in the silence that was pressing around him, making him fidget, "Well, to find the Chasers then, Boss?"

Ormi asked out of his own wonder, and totally missing whatever Logos had said, "ARE WE'S GOING TO FIND DAH CHASER GUYS, BOSS?"

Leblanc stared at the two men, her brows curved, before finally nodding her consent. It irked her that she couldn't just order them to find the Chasers right behind her, but nonetheless at least it was going to get done. Leblanc was the first to turn before sparing one more look to the goon, a look that read 'I'll-Deal-With-You-Once-I-Get-My-Voice-Back-Just-You-Wait', and finally briskly turned on her heel to exit.

Ormi jolted at Leblanc's sudden leave, and quickly bounded after her in his obedient 'hop-to' manner to take his place directly behind his leader. Leblanc, eyes straight forward, set herself to begin this obviously painful and annoying journey for their senses. They were nearly up to Logo's room and to the hallway where the spiked booby trap wall reset itself when there was a crash of objects from the room they had left.

Ormi and Leblanc, remembering yet again, both turned back around into the infirmary to help a recently blind gunner navigate himself around a despairing doctor goon that had lost an entire good potion shelf to his newly clumsy walking skills.

"Thank you," Logos bit off, mostly to the big fist that wrapped around his thin arm to lead him out, "It would be good to have the help, you know."

Leblanc, on his other side, lifted her foot and sharply brought it down on his toes. After a prompt yelp, the gunner acknowledged the fact that his smart comments, no matter who they were directed to, were not appreciated by his blond headed boss. Ormi, having not even noticed the gunner speak, looked to his friend that flinched in his fist and asked, "YOUSE ALRIGHT?"

"Just fine." Logos limped two steps before correcting himself and allowed them to lead him all the way through the chateau again, hating that he couldn't just do it himself.

* * *

Before they fully left Guadosalam, they acquired a few items that might make their 'conditions' (hopefully temporary) easier to deal with. Leblanc put a notepad and a pen in her sleeve, to make up for her lack of words when need-be; while Logos tucked away a canister of aspirin in his coat, popping a few in his mouth first though, since his condition aggravated him the most out of the three (though Leblanc was close behind him on levels of irritation). Ormi, sadly, had nothing to help him with his problem so he just reminded himself that he was _really _loud and it made his two friends ticked off at him when he spoke unnecessarily.

Logos, out of stupid pride, refused to get a cane or walking stick or anything that might help him when either of his two companions weren't around. Also, mid-way to the Moonflow, he also decided that he could manage to walk on his own. And not only did that spell trouble for the trio, it brought it along without fail.

"LOGOS, WATCH OUT FOR THAT-!" Ormi tried to warn just a second too late as the gunner stumbled over a twisted stick in the path, falling once again on his face. Leblanc rolled her eyes and bent down to help her second-in-command to his feet, since the last two times he tried by himself he either rolled into the Flow or tangled himself up in whatever he had tripped on in the first place.

Ormi also went to assist, since Leblanc was having trouble pushing the gunner up right to where he'd avoid the stick, and the warrior picked up the gunslinger by the scruff of his coat and yanked him up to his feet roughly.

Irritably, the gunner batted off dust he couldn't see, the fact that he was covered in it anyways clearly escaping him and his missing eyesight, before he mumbled a low, "Thank you." again for the fourth time he's fallen in the last couple dozen of feet.

Leblanc rolled her eyes when he went to move forward again. She put a hand to his chest to stop him, Logos briefly 'looking' down at the hand with slight confusion writ on his face, before Leblanc pushed him back a little and put firm hands on her cocked hips.

Ormi watched the exchange and decided to translate as best as he could, "DO YOUSE NOT WANT LOGOS TO WALK BY HIMSELF, BOSS?"

Leblanc nodded and reached out to grab the gunner's arm, motioning her head at Ormi to guide the other one. Logos faltered just a bit before insisting, "Boss I can manage by my-!"

Leblanc snapped her fingers, producing a loud quick noise, to shut him up. Satisfied that his mouth stopped moving, Leblanc pulled his arm forward and started to walk along the Moonflow, her hand tugging demandingly to continue. The two men had no choice in the matter anymore and followed.

Somehow, by Lady Luck's graces, they'd get to Luca and start searching for clues to where the _Chasers_, resided. Leblanc, if she could, would've scoffed at the thought that they were so apparently famous yet she hadn't heard of them. Nonetheless, if they were indeed sphere hunters, then Luca would have the answer since it was sphere hunter central for purchasing and selling spheres.

Over the recent years, Luca had become a hub for sphere exchange since it was the only city in which to register the sphere hunting groups officially (and obtaining an official license for distributing records of Spirian history). In fact, it was because of the harbor city's increased dealings in the sphere-business that it was chosen for Sphere-Break competitions, a newly developed game that started in none other than Luca itself.

In other words, there was no other more perfect place to find anyone that had to deal with spheres, than Luca.

If the Chasers were a group, and not just some hobbyists that occasionally picked up a sphere or two, which was unlikely by their infuriating boastful attitudes, then Leblanc just had to go to Luca to look them up. And it would probably be a good guess that someone in Luca had heard of them before (since they, the Syndicate, surely hadn't) and might give a bit more info on the subject.

Leblanc continued to lead the way, as she always had, until finally they made the long journey to Luca with only one little interruption with some fiends on the Mi'ihen. Much to the gunner's further embarrassment to his problem, Ormi and Leblanc were the only ones that could do much about it since he couldn't fire one shot, unsure of where the fiends were and where his friends stood.

Walking down the steps, Logos slowly poking his way along with his foot, refusing any further help after sitting out the earlier fight, the trio had finally made it to Luca. They stopped at the bottom of the steps, unknowingly standing over a very special place where a High Summoner had first shown someone she could whistle, and took a moment's break.

Had Leblanc her voice, she would've of immediately smacked her hand to her curvy hip and, with as much zeal and haughtiness that went with her usual self, say loud and clear, "_Boys! Find those Chaser sphere hunter wanna-be's and __**make **__them tell us all we need to know. And if they have the spheres-" _She would pause then before grinning in her confident and fiery way, "-_liberate it from them as payment for giving us so much trouble!" _

And of course naturally they'd reply, in unison, _Yes Boss! _

But, with her voice gone, and Ormi unable to hear her anyhow, it would be pointless to try and convey so much. She contemplated pulling out the pad when the gunner, his tone still grumpy, drawled out much of what she was thinking.

"I suppose we should look-" He lifted his mouth in a hateful sneer at the irony of his own words to his situation before amending, "-Locate, the so-called Chasers and have them tell us about this curse, preferably the undoing of it. Oh," He, in the first time since landing in his condition, slowly lifted up the corner of his mouth, "I suppose we should also somehow manage to walk off with the spheres if it's indeed in their hands."

Leblanc nodded and Ormi replied with a dumb, "HUH? WHAD' YOUSE SAY?"

Logos growled and snapped, "Idiot!"

"HEY!"

_Enough! _Leblanc open-handedly smacked both of them on the sides of their heads, jumping slightly to effectively get Logos. When both the men stopped bickering, and had their attentions on her, she nodded once with satisfaction and turned to Ormi, pulling out the pad of paper and pen from her sleeve.

She quickly scribbled her words, angry swift strokes added to the paper, before holding it up in tight fingers for the warrior to see. He squinted at them, leaning slightly forward, and read it with his mouth slightly and (for once since become deaf) silently moving. Before he understood with an "OOOOHHHH. YEAH! LET'S GO FIND THEM CHASER GUYS!"

Logos rolled his blind eyes before walking after what he thought to be his friends turning to leave, randomly following a passing strolling couple instead, much to the discomfort for the young loves.

"AUH, LOGOS-" Ormi's meaty hand clamped over the gunner's shoulder and brought him two steps back, "THAT'S NOT ME OR THE BOSS."

The couple gave one more wary glance to the tall 'creep' that had randomly started to follow them into the city before scurrying off, hardly seeing the half-apologetic looks from the big guy that stopped the gunner or the blonde woman attempting to be overlooked for once in her proud life.

Leblanc shook her head lightly, slender fingers touching her temple, before lifting her brow at the two boys as if asking, _Can we go now?_

Ormi stared blankly at her, waiting, while Logos was surprisingly uncaring about scaring some teenagers a bit. Leblanc pushed past Ormi, the warrior then dragging the gunner, and they went right into the main part of Luca to begin the hopefully brief search.

All went well in heading to the building which the roster was kept for sphere hunters, until they actually stood in front of it. Logos planted his feet into the ground and cleared his throat lightly.

"Erm, Boss? I'll stay out here until you come back out."

Leblanc shook her head at him. She wasn't planning on writing everything she wanted to ask and Ormi, likely as not, wasn't going to cut it. Logos squirmed, sensing the rejection in Leblanc mute answer. But, all he could think about was the bustling crammed people, crabby sphere hunters abound, and the seemingly unnecessary and numerous stairs and elevators within the concrete walls.

Leblanc was first to have her way though and pointed to the door with a slight pursed mouth and furrowed brows. Ormi gently pushed the gunner, and Logos stumbled on the very first step that lead into the Spiran Historical Society building.

* * *

Leblanc jammed her forefinger forcefully into the paper of her pad, crinkling the center of her words nicely.

"I've read it!" The high and mighty slouched man behind the desk, his glasses barely hanging onto his flat long nose, then repeated what he had said for the past five minutes, "And I don't care! I'm not allowed to disclose that information."

Leblanc, aggravated but otherwise unfazed, jabbed the paper again, the ink reading, **Where are the Chasers?**

It was clear, by the man's very first reaction, that he at least knew the group by name. However, he was proving nearly as stubborn as Leblanc in the regard of actually answering the question. In this situation, were it any other day, Leblanc would've just decided to be intimidating and have Ormi and Logos help 'convince' the man to agree with her.

However, after a quick glance behind her, she realized that was impossible to ask. Ormi was too busy trying to read the man's lips to make it a smooth transition from standing there, reading her new written note, and then actually doing the threatening. While Logos wasn't even standing near her, looking towards the back, itching to get away from all the glares he could feel boring a hole through his skull, sadly from all sides as the people who worked there were seemingly never happy, always gloomy, and of course annoyed that the three sphere hunters still stood in their office.

Leblanc flipped the pad over to reveal a new clean sheet and started to feverishly scrawl a new message. She held it up for the spectacled-man to see, **You told us where the Gullwings were, you idiot! **

With the attention of the man still in her grasp, and with gratification that the man slightly stiffened when reading the last two bits, Leblanc slowly flipped the notebook back to its previous note:

**Where are the Chasers?**

"They like to keep themselves…private," The man sneered, "And I didn't expect you to actually _find _the Gullwings. They could've been anywhere! It's a miracle you ever did, _if _you did."

Leblanc lifted a brow. _If _they did?

Was that really even a question? Even without all the Luck in the world, of course they did! They were THEE _Leblanc Syndicate,_ with influence in many important areas around Spira! Find them? They didn't just find them! They even stole a broken sphere piece they desperately needed right out from under their little noses and left a very special 'message' in it's place! Ha! Like this man had any right to be so conceited.

Leblanc pointed to the paper once more, her finger repeatedly stabbing, with all her hate behind it, the word **Chasers. **

"Bugger off!" The man behind the desk said, "Before I have you thrown out _again, _Miss Leblanc. We aren't here just to answer all your damn demands and it's best if you stop thinking that we would. You have employees for that, and last I checked, the men and women here aren't under your payroll!"

"Oh for bloody-!" Logos turned around and snarled, "Would you just tell us where they are? We have business with them and clearly a problem that overrides most usual situations! How in all of Spira does anyone find these so-called Chasers anyways if you do not inform them? It's a wonder they can get business at all with this impeccable support they have from-"

"They have high paying private collectors that seek them out somehow without coming to _me._" The man pushed up his glasses up his flat narrow nose and sent a dirty look towards the gunner who blindly stared straight ahead into the wall over his desk, "It's not my problem if you sphere hunters run into something down in some cave. It's an occupational hazard, I should think. I don't care how you find the Chasers or if you ever find them, but I'll tell you one thing, it won't be from me."

Annoyed, Logos pointed a sharp finger towards the man's obnoxious dry voice, "Now listen you- Oi! Let go!"

Leblanc shook her head as Logos was seized up by his arms and dragged out backwards by the building's security guards. She slapped the men that tried to grab her, while Ormi simply left all his weight into his feet until Leblanc, a little less than calmly, made her way after the gunner who struggled, hissed, snarled, and cursed against the guards shuffling him along. Only then did the warrior follow them both out down the stairs and towards the back door, purposefully positioning himself between their boss and the other guards.

With a heave, the guards first threw Logos outside into the alleyway before stepping aside for Leblanc and Ormi to leave. Leblanc peeked at Logos on the ground before stomping on the feet of the right guard and pushing outside haughtily, nose nearly in the air.

Rubbing his right toes, bent over double to reach it, the guard leaned out swiftly and moodily slammed the door on the Syndicate, who always managed to get his toes as he 'escorted' them out every time.

As always, Leblanc narrowed her eyes at the crappy, half-rusted, and beat up door that separated the equally crappy back hallways and stairs from the rest of Luca. For an extravagant building, the back was sadly in need of an uplift to match it. But clearly the men inside didn't care for it since it was only used for throwing people out, mainly the Syndicate these days, without causing much of a scene.

Leblanc brushed off her sleeves. She could be civil, even polite, but when it came to getting what she wanted she didn't take 'no' for an answer. And the old crones inside were short tempered and hard headed. The Syndicate always ended up in the rear of the building, bruising their reputation, but hateful just the same as the old fashioned nitwits in the building.

With a moan, still laying flat out on his back, Logos grumbled, "Why do we even bother coming here again?"

_Because sometimes I can get them to tell me what I want._ Leblanc thought, and otherwise would've vocalized, but instead shook her head and made the motions for sighing, no sound escaping. She only got what she wanted, when she had what she needed. Particularly she needed two men that weren't handicapped in one way or another and a commanding voice of her own.

Ormi lent a hand to the gunslinger and brought him back to his feet with a jolting snap. The gunner rubbed his shoulder briefly and looked to where the sound of many pedestrians dragged his face to the street.

"Shall we continue our search elsewhere, Boss?" Logos asked with doubt already lining his voice.

Leblanc nodded, after a moment to let the fact that their search would be pretty aimless sink in, and took the first steps from the alley and into the harsh daylight of noon in the harbor city.

* * *

Since it wasn't the first time they got booted out of the Historical building (and knowingly wouldn't be the last) they had some other places for info in mind. The first one being a shop called _Mikeel's Spheres and Gears_.

Mikeel was a good-natured shopkeeper who they had met when buying tools and other necessities for repairs or whatever they needed for the chateau to help their hunting. He had a small shop that Logos's sharp eye zeroed in on after grumbling about the high prices for tools to clear up images on spheres.

Since then, the Syndicate became something of regulars, dropping in whenever they found themselves in the neighbor hood or if they didn't have the means to fix an item by themselves at home. But, most of all, Mikeel was well informed and this further suited the group's needs.

"I'll stay out here," Logos insisted again when they reached the shop. Mikeel was kind, and well versed in almost all things sphere, but that didn't make him neat. His shop was precariously stacked ceiling high with supplies for anything to do with hunting and sphere repair. Even with his eyesight, Logos once bumped into a load of boxes and got a nice metal can full of bolts to ping off his helmet. And now with his eyesight gone- everything would go terribly wrong.

Leblanc, this time, agreed, thinking much of the same thing, and pointed Ormi to lead Logos to a bench outside. Logos sat, feeling moody again that he had to be led everywhere, and slightly feeling like a child being put in time out. Leblanc nodded her approval of where he was at and jerked her head at Ormi to follow her inside the shop.

Logos sat for a while, his fingers drumming against his knees, before he stood up feeling uncomfortable sitting alone on a bench while feeling the stares of other's he couldn't meet back with his sight. He safely paced the front of the bench for a time, knowing he couldn't really get anywhere without anyone to help, before the heat of the seaside day started to burn through his helmet and make his head extremely hot.

In his mind's eye, he could remember a set of trees around a fountain in the middle of the round plaza, always shaded. The boss shouldn't have any trouble pointing him out, in his gaudy outfit, so there wouldn't be any harm in him sitting there instead.

Across the plaza, whining in the heat, huffed a dog with tongue lolling from his snout. The furry creature half lidded his eyes, also contemplating crossing the street towards the fountain, when a shrill cry brought it's triangular ears to a perk.

"What a cute dog," Rikku smiled at the animal and offered it her hand, which it gladly licked and butted for attention, "Aww."

"Stop touching it," Paine said dully, "We have to get moving." With her black clad outfit, she was sweltering in the heat, but Rikku, Al Bhed and accustomed to heat far worse than this, went obliviously on loving the dog.

Yuna's soft voice coaxed her cousin to rise, "If we don't hurry it might close for lunch before we get there."

"Aw, alright," Rikku said somewhat sadly and stood to her full height, "Bye you cute little- Hey!"

Taken by surprised, Yuna's voice rose a little, "What?"

"Look at that!" The Al Bhed teenager nearly laughed in singsong and pointed her half-gloved finger to what had caught her attention. The other two girls turned their heads and saw a line of blue through the throng of busy shoppers. Some people moved away, and then Yuna and Paine truly saw what had Rikku so entertained.

He walked, blindly and asking for trouble, towards the sound of the water splashing into the stone pool. He bumped into people as he went, as expected, and muttered his 'excuse me's' and curt apologies, receiving a mix of forgiveness or irritated grunts.

"What do you think he's doing here?" Rikku tilted her head, her long blonde ponytail adjusting accordingly. Then, she put a tan finger to her chin, "And is it just me or is he walking funny?"

Yuna shook her head, "I don't know. I'm glad though-"

Rikku looked up curiously and uttered with a squeak, "Huh?"

"Well," Yuna explained in her soft, calm, voice, "We haven't seen them since the ruin collapsed. I'm glad they got out all right."

"Aww Yunie," Rikku bumped her cousin with her arm warmer covered elbow, "It's just like you to care so much, but I already knew they were gonna be fine." Rikku then pointed out, "Do you really think Leblanc would get stuck in something like that? She'd probably dig herself out in no time if she did just so she could see Nooj."

Yuna laughed a little, "That would seem like her."

Paine tilted her head to the side, slightly confused, before bringing the attention of the two girls back to the middle of the plaza with a jerk of her head, "Watch him for a second."

Finally, his knees bumped into the side of the fountain, making his wince, before he felt his way along it until the sounds of people close by died just a little. At least they weren't to the sides of him, but behind him now where the crowds were.

"Aaand-?" Rikku dragged out, wondering why the warrior would want them to watch him walk around a fountain.

"Something's wrong with him," Paine positioned her hips side ways and folded her arms over her chest, "He's not walking as he should and running into everything."

Yuna tilted her body slightly, her brows arching a bit, before lifting a hand to her mouth, "I wonder why."

Rikku mischievously smiled and pawed the air excitedly, turning to her two friends, "Oo~hh, Let's go find out!"

Logos bumped into another person as the trio of girls neared, this time harder than usual and he grasped the person's shoulders to keep him and the person he bumped into from falling. He coughed lightly before muttering, "Sorry, Ma'am."

A deep gruff voice growled, "I'm not a _ma'am_!'

Grumpily, the gunner narrowed his eyes just a bit and released their shoulders from his hands, "Well my apologies. You have a very effeminate body, _sir._"

The man stalked off with a grumbled curse before Logos straightened himself and found the edge of the fountain again, hearing no other person that would be sitting near him, and decided to lower himself in this spot.

Just as he was about to complete his action of sitting down after he turned around, a high excited squeal flashed into his mental image.

"Heee-eey!"

He took a step back from the unexpectedly close person before his knees painfully caught the edge of the fountain and crumpled, his arms swinging uselessly for a couple of seconds before- _**Spoosh! **_

The trio of girls were quiet as Logos pushed himself into a sitting position in the cool fountain, a stream of water splashing onto his head from where it decoratively poured above. With his lips lopsided, and his brows pushed down into his eyes, he spat out water that he had swallowed and tried as best as he could to glare in Rikku's direction.

"What do you want?" His nasally voice drawled, and set himself to rising and feeling over the edges to climb back out.

Paine was the first to put what she saw together and said, "You're blind." Her voice was slightly surprised, unbelieving, but still had the dull and matter of fact way she spoke behind it.

"Yes," He said simply, not at all relishing from the fact. Once he managed to get himself back in the shade on the side of the fountain, he gripped his loose sleeves and pulled the water from them to splatter on the stone ground.

"How-?" Yuna began but was cut short by a swing of his hand as he stared straight ahead of him.

"A curse from those three spheres." Logos took a swipe of his hand against his helmet before sighing, since he was drenched and couldn't do much more about it. Yuna waited for him to say more, then realizing that was it, she leaned slightly towards him.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm blind," Logos stopped himself from growling it out, but it still came out harsh, "Do you think I'm alright?"

Rikku swiveled her head in all directions, turning a couple of times, before her spiral green eyes settled on the arrow on Logos's head, his shoulders drooping now. "Where's Leblanc?"

"In Mikeel's for information," He set his elbows sideways on his knees and let his shoulders slouch more forward, as he slurred, "Unsurprisingly, we are trying to undo what's been done to us. As it stands now, my boss can't speak, I'm blind, and Ormi can't hear a thing. It's quite a pain, as you can easily imagine."

Yuna, always the one to stick her nose in other people's troubles, asked slowly, "Well, is there anything we could do to help?"

"No-" Logos started before lifting his head and tilting his chin slightly, "Well, there are a few things. First, the spheres aren't by any chance in your hands, are they?"

Yuna shook her head, then remembering of course that he couldn't see it replied, "No, we don't."

"It's probably not likely to still be in the ruins, what with the perfect opportunity for it to be snatched up." Logos straightened his back out and deeply groaned, "No doubt it's in the Chasers' hands. You wouldn't happen to know anything about them yourselves would you?"

"No," Yuna turned to her cousin and then to Paine, them both shrugging in return before looking back down at the gunner, "We haven't heard of them before this time either."

"Well, supposedly their sphere hunters that only sell to private collectors," Logos told them, and with the benefit of organizing the facts in his own head to keep it straight, "So far that's all we know about them, but Mikeel is more than likely to have heard something. He's a busy body when it comes to spheres and the business."

* * *

"Why if it isn't Lady Leblanc herself!" Mikeel's head popped up from behind the piles of crates, opened slightly to reveal small delicate gears, and smiled wide over her and Ormi, "Ah, aren't we missing one?"

Leblanc held up a hand and shook it in a dismissive manner before she pulled out her pad and started to write.

**Have you ever heard of the Chasers?**

"Sure I have," Mikeel nodded and wiped his hands off on a grimy white cloth hanging from his waist. "But, uh…" He crossed his arms and leaned into the counter that he worked behind, "Is something wrong?"

Leblanc took a curled hand to her throat and then waved it away from her before pointing to Ormi and then pointing to her ears, before shaking her head.

"Charades?" Mikeel turned his head slightly before gasping, "Ah! I don't get it…"

Rolling her eyes, Leblanc jotted down-

**I can't speak, Ormi can't hear, and Logos can't see. **

"Why?" Mikeel looked up and Leblanc narrowed her eyes at him, losing patience. Knowing her well enough, Mikeel lifted his hands up and said submissively, "Alright, alright! I assume now it's a curse of some sort? I don't know what this has to do with the Chaser's but I'll help in any way I can…what do you want to know?"

Leblanc flipped the book back to her earlier questions with the Historical Society employee, **Where are the Chasers?**

"They have a main headquarters up in the high class area of Bevelle," Mikeel started to wipe down his counter and then smirked, "Pretty pretentious lot if you ask me. They only collect the highest and rarest spheres, ignoring any other that aren't up to their standards, and sell them to private collectors all over Spira. I only know this much about them from what people say or, I should say, complain. They sure know how to rile us 'small folk'. As a matter of fact-"

Mikeel rose up into an offended pose, getting off track, and shouted, "Do you know what they said about my place? Apparently, me and my shop aren't good enough for their bunch! But, they had enough time to tromp their pompous behinds in here when they heard whispers of how good my shop really is by some of my favorite customers! But, what did they say? 'Not worth the time!' Just a bunch of nasty jerks. They came in here to poke fun at me and my goods once and never came back."

Leblanc could believe it, but she needed to still know where they were located exactly. She pointed at the question again.

"Oh," Mikeel nodded, calming down from his rant, "Yeah-" He coughed to clear his throat and sent a slightly apologetic look to the boss, "I can't be quite sure where they are. Like I said, those a-holes like to keep nice and private. Exclusive, see?"

"SO'S ARE THEY'S HARD TO FIND?" Ormi blared and Mikeel reeled back in surprise before gathering his senses, remembering what Leblanc 'said' through her writing.

"Well, no," The shopkeep shook his head for Ormi to understand, "But, they aren't just going to let you in either. High paying buyers and Chaser members are the only ones that ever see the inside of their headquarters. Gil is the only thing that speaks to them. Oh, and sucking up to future buyers of course. Why are you looking for them anyways?"

Leblanc smirked and quickly put her black strokes against the paper, **No one messes with the Leblanc Syndicate, love.**

* * *

When Leblanc stepped out into the bright light of day, she almost instantly seized up before stomping over to the three girls in front of her gunner. She put her hand on her hip and lifted her brow, as if asking, _Well? What's this?_

Hearing the familiar clicks of heels, even through all the other walking pedestrians, Logos stood up and felt Leblanc inspect him and his soaking clothes up and down before explaining, "Erm, the Gullwings were uh, hrm, just-"

"Leblanc," Yuna stepped forward and put on her face that just meant trouble for the Gullwings, "I think you need our help."

_I don't need your help! I can handle myself and my group just fine! _Aggravated that she couldn't just say it, she crossed her arms instead and took a couple of moments to think about how to convey her words, effectively cooling her down though. She tilted her head the other way and jerked her chin, her brow lifting questioningly.

Yuna lowered her shoulders, "You can get around Spira a lot faster with the ship."

Paine and Rikku, especially the latter, raised their voices a bit and warned, "Now Yuna," or just 'Yunie!' as was in the Al Bhed's case.

Logos turned towards the sound of Rikku shuffling closer to her cousin, before the Al Bhed leaned into the Former High Summoner's side and whispered, none to quiet actually, "Yunie, we don't want them on our ship again! I mean, I know you want to help and all, but don't you think it might not be a bad thing if Leblanc isn't able to talk?"

_I heard that you little brat! _Leblanc pushed up her shoulders, her arms stiffening with the want to punch something, before stomping her foot a bit forward.

Ormi, obviously oblivious and unable to see past the girl's hand cupping her mouth, boomed, "WHU'D THEY'S SAY?"

Standing a tad bit too close to the gunner's poor ear, the grumpy faced gunner sunk his usual scowl down and slapped the side of his head to hold his hurting ears drums. He turned to Ormi and snarled, "They're insulting us!"

Ormi lifted a thick brow and asked, loud of course, "WHY WOULD THEY'S TALK ABOUT SALTY NUTS?"

"Oh for the love of Lady Luck-" Logos growled before the sound of girlish giggling cut him off. His mood was still sour however, since, unlike the Gullwings, he didn't find the stares from all sides that he could sense after his friend blared about salty nuts in a public place amusing or humorous.

Yuna offered again, "We could take you to wherever you need to go. You know, just to help."

Leblanc stared straight at the good-natured girl before making the motions of sighing. It would be faster and Leblanc wanted this condition taken care of as much as anybody would. But seriously, did the girl always have to be such a goody-goody?

Leblanc gave a faint nod before Rikku and Paine shook their heads and shrugged, yet again getting dragged into a goodwill mission that probably wouldn't benefit them much, on the business side anyway_s._


	4. Chapter 4

_**-.-.-.-.-.-  
**_

_**Speak No Evil, Hear No Evil, See No Evil**_

_Chapter 4: Stupid Curses Aren't Stopping the Most Extravagant Sphere Hunters in All of Spira!_

* * *

Flying never really got old. Not for her anyways.

There was just something that _breathed _up here, this high in the air. Something almost living that couldn't be found anywhere else.

A lot of people have dreams about flying, and Leblanc wasn't much different. The inhuman feeling of the wind whipping past, the sun's warmth beaming off of clouds onto your face from below as you floated over them, and of course, the landscape so much more vast and huge as you saw it from above, just appealed to her.

As a little girl, like many, she even had dreams about it.

The little things, like waving down to tiny ant-sized people, seeing the rivers and lakes as just bluish blotches and veins cutting through the green land, and looking above even snow-capped mountains like they were mere giant rocks, were all things she dreamed as a child. Because even then she craved adventure, wanting it more than anything in the world.

Why else would she purposefully pick a profession that requires one to dive deep into underwater caves, scale rocky cliff faces, and battle all sorts of fiends and forgotten guardian beasts for a sweet prize at the end? Well, of course, besides her love for Nooj, which actually brought the job to her attention of course, but she loved her never boring occupation much as she loved Nooj. Well, almost.

The adventure certainly was appreciated whenever she went on her missions nonetheless. The idea of being in places that hadn't seen a human being in ages excited her. She never could help but wonder if the old ruins and domes spent all those years of waiting just for her to enter them, to discover their secrets, and find their beautiful spheres that were hidden within. The thought thrilled her, and she was more than happy to do continuous 'favors' for Nooj in fetching the spheres he required. Almost like icing on a already delicious cake.

She got that same feeling of bliss when she was dreaming about flying, or better yet, standing on the Celsius deck and overlooking the entire world, actually flying. Like ancient ruins, no one could say they had been up there in years, well except the Gullwings who lived up in the clouds. But, Leblanc still relished in the idea that no one but herself and a few others had breathed this high altitude air in a long, long, time.

Like it had just been waiting for her.

Leblanc sighed, content, and closed her eyes as she stood, at none other than the very front end of the deck on the Gullwing's Celsius. This would be the fourth time she boarded the Celsius, only the third time having been invited, and only the second time she had managed to wiggle herself some free time to idly stand on deck.

The first time was like a dream, and this time still held a feeling of unrealistic happiness, but it was more like reality now that she was experiencing it again.

Clouds split apart against the Celsius's hull and the watery mist that they were formed from dully brushed by Leblanc as she reopened her eyes to the bright blue sky stretching far ahead of her.

The contentment she had earlier painted on her face slowly faded, her eyes hooding, and the slight attractive curl of her lips straightening out, as she sighed again. She held her elbows against her body and shifted her weight, her eyes still drifting over the cut out patterns that were fields between the many roads of Spira.

She knew it wasn't going to be a sensation that would last for her, since it wasn't hers, so she tried not to get too attached to the idea of flying. But, it would've been nice to have it forever.

"Boss?" Logos drew closer before the Celsius hit a bit of turbulence and he jerked forward, his hand reaching out for something to hold onto, which her shoulder offered.

He quickly brought his hand back and went to straighten his coat, coughing slightly, before giving a lopsided smirk, "The, er, Gullwings said you were out here. I thought you'd want to know we are nearing Bevelle."

The trip hardly even took a fraction of the time it would've taken them to walk the distance. And they get to skip all the fiends. Yet, Leblanc nodded curtly and refused the idea of thanking them for the assistance.

They were rivals by all rights after all! It was just like an amateur to forget that. If Yuna was expecting some nice 'thank you's' then she would be surprised. Leblanc looked over the view that the Gullwings were privileged to see every day and gradually glanced out of the corner of her eye at Logos, who couldn't see any of it.

Last time they were heading to Bevelle too, and Logos stood only a few paces behind her taking in all the same sights as she over their world, with probably just as much amazement. It was too bad he couldn't enjoy it again, with the curse blinding him.

Leblanc crossed her arms tightly and set her eyes on the landscape below the white sun-soaked clouds, and off in the distance, a colored and fortified city, Bevelle.

Those Chasers, if they thought that the Leblanc Syndicate would just take the curse sitting down, would also be surprised! Those pompous, self-important, arrogant, and pretentious snobs had another thing coming if they deluded themselves that it would be the last time they ever saw the splendid recovery of the Syndicate.

Even without her voice, and her gunner without his sight, and her warrior without the ability to hear, she knew that between her and the boys, that anything could get done when she set her mind to it. If they had a, slight, disadvantage, then so be it. It only made them that more determined. Since, as Leblanc knew, they all disliked being in this condition and would do anything to get their senses back.

Hard thuds announced Ormi joining them on deck, and Leblanc's eyes watched Bevelle get closer and closer, as the Celsius slowly lowered itself to a landing.

The Gullwings ended up dropping them off directly on the High Bridge, as they had done before, and Leblanc pulled out the sheet of paper with directions and leads that Mikeel had given them. Leblanc was only stopped momentarily when she looked over her shoulder to check if Logos knew to follow her and Ormi and saw the Gullwings also helping to lead the gunner around.

Leblanc cocked her hip and craned her neck forward, hands on her hips, and gestured- _Why are you still here?_

"We are here to help," Yuna insisted.

"Yeah," Rikku put on hand on her tilted hip and brought her other hand up in level with her shoulder, literally 'pointing' out, "The Chasers seemed pretty tough."

"Even you have to admit that you can use our help." Paine's mellow voice was slightly softer and she jerked her head forward with the slightest hint of smile on her pale face, "Leblanc."

Leblanc crossed her arms. There was no point in arguing, since she didn't have her voice to do it, but they should know that this didn't change a thing. Just like with Vegnagun, if they got in her way from getting a sphere for Nooj, then they would have to fight her for it. She could only hope they knew that.

She briskly turned on her heel as her answer for them and set forward across the bridge and into the city of Bevelle.

* * *

Mikeel should be given a lesson when it comes to writing down directions because they were poor at best. Leblanc squinted at it and turned it this way and that, only to discover Mikeel must've had something backwards and the directions were useless.

At one point, they got so turned around that Logos got annoyed and demanded to know why Ormi was jerking him every few seconds to the complete opposite direction. Leblanc only ignored it while Ormi answered in confusion, of course ear splittingly loud, and dumbly asked what it was the gunner had said, the latter hissing as pain attacked his head and he reached for aspirin.

Leblanc tried to make out what 'past a blue building and two green doors down the alleyway' meant exactly on a street full of bluish buildings, when she fully determined that Mikeel must've never been to Bevelle in his life. Or at least given proper directions for the city.

Rikku found a green door and then stopped at the next one over, looking over her shoulder at Paine, and pointing, "Does this look green to you?"

"Looks more like grey," Paine tapped her foot and firmly crossed her arms. Both her and Logos had more than enough of wandering around lost. Leblanc stared at it before crushing the paper in her fist and stomping past it and into the alleyway.

If they didn't find their way soon, then she was going to absolutely kill Mikeel for the wild goose chase he had sent them on.

After a little under an hour of aimlessly searching, Ormi blared out across the street, " 'EY! BOSS! YOUSE SAID THAT IT WAS ON THE UPPER SIDE OF BEVELLE, RIGHT?"

Leblanc looked over at him and nodded. The warrior lifted his hand and her eyes followed to where his chubby finger pointed. A set of white cleanly swept stairs seemingly lead up to an upper tier of the city, and would be a logical place to search for the Chasers. Of course, that only brought them a bit closer to their desired destination. Leblanc motioned for everyone to follow her and started to climb the steps, accepting it was better than nothing.

Logos was hoisted up the stairs bit by bit until finally they could set out into the overly extravagant neighborhoods of the Bevellian high class.

Bevelle was already a beautiful city to begin with, and in the upper class district, even more so. Paint was vibrant and without flaw, stone laid perfectly down in complicated mural like patterns whenever two streets intersected, and the buildings were built tall. Yevon marked banners hung down from every eave of the structured they passed, and occasionally, the small gardens in front of the homes held miniature fountains portraying Yunalesca pouring water from a vase. Flowers of every color was carefully and painstakingly set into the black earth between weaving stone walkways and in reddish, round, pots. The entire street they walked down flourished in signs of richness and luxurious plushness.

Even Leblanc, with her flair for dramatic design and of course, the flashy, was impressed and slightly distracted by the unique homes.

The mix-matched group trailed up and down the exquisite homes, receiving half-curious stares from families enjoying outside lunches on the fine day at white picnic tables with matching chairs and under the shade of a perfectly pruned and trimmed tree. The group, besides Logos, saw the stares and managed smiles and halfhearted waves before turning back into impatience at the badly written instructions that seemingly got them nowhere.

Leblanc pulled out the scrap of paper (earlier deemed worthless) and silently scanned over the information that was scrawled over the surface. _If _the address was at least somewhat right, then she could use it to navigate from where she stood.

She turned to look at the black iron number plates against each of the front gates in front of the homes. To her surprise, supposedly they were close.

The group, the Gullwing trio right behind Leblanc while Ormi guided Logos cautiously at the back, wove their way down the streets, Leblanc's eyes skipping from one plate to the other, before finally she planted her feet right in front of the matching plate to the note in her hand.

The Chaser's address was right, at the least, and despite herself, her mouth opened just a bit at the sight of where the group had made their headquarters.

The building was wide as it was tall with a round porch jutting out from it's front. Neatly laid colored stones lined the pathway up to the three green painted stairs that connected to the porch, and ultimately the dark red double doors in center of the house face as the main entrance. Windows were clean and red curtains were drawn to block out any wandering eyes. The building itself was a typical color for most Bevellian structures, but had the grand gold linings and framing that rivaled the Temple. Spiral designs decorated the domed roof and led the way up to the highest point of the curve in the dome, where a golden sun jutted up above, and glistening from the true sun's rays.

Like all the buildings they had passed so far, from the eave below the dome, hung a Yevon banner. What was different of course, was the other banner that held relatively no meaning unless you saw and knew what that marking was. And orange circle inside a white one, placed on a black background. They emblem of the Chasers.

Leblanc looked back down at the paper for good measure and read the last line- **Building with a gold sun.**

Leblanc shook herself. Of course it was showy. They were showy people, and with that fact, there was no reason to be jealous or shameful. Anyways, no one in their right mind would call her own home shabby, even in comparison. So, Leblanc waved her hand over her shoulder and took the first steps towards the Chaser's headquarters.

**Knock knock knock! **

They paused a moment before the two groups exchanged looks, excluding Logos of course, before Rikku shrugged lightly and her girlish voice drew out-

"Maybe…They're not home?" She shook her head, her tone doubtful. "Or we're not being loud enough?"

Leblanc stared up at the windows, but neither light nor activity of any sort could get past the heavy draperies even if it was going on behind them. She set her mouth and narrowed her eyes again on the double doors.

Her purple encased knuckles rapped on the double doors a third time, faster and with more fury behind her pounds, before she received much of the same. She stomped her foot and her mind coiled around her anger boiling in her skull.

Paine tilted her hips and offered, "Should I kick it down?"

"HELLO!" Ormi bellowed in his attempt to scream through the walls. Logos hissed at yet another unexpected attack on his ears and plugged the side of his head, shooting a nasty look as best as he could in Ormi's direction.

Leblanc took another step back, staring through the walls, before she grabbed the lion knocker in her hand and slammed it into the copper plate beneath it with all her might.

There was a distinct click and the grand double doors were finally opened to reveal Reo spreading his arms wide as he held the knobs in his fists, a sick smile on his lips and with his eyes closed, "We've been expecting you-" He opened his eyes and instantly narrowed them, seeing who his visitors really were, "Or perhaps not…"

Leblanc narrowed her eyes harder at him and tapped her foot against the wood of the porch, lip jutting out. Reo scanned over the faces and his smile grew bigger.

"I'm surprised to see you alive." He leaned his thin frame into the side of the half opened door and chuckled, "Though I guess you're suffering from that fancy curse now, ain't ya?"

As soon as it was said, Dardel's voice trailed behind Reo, asking, "Why haven't you let them in yet?"

When his face appeared, he seemed only somewhat surprised to see them before he darkly smiled and wiggled a hand at them, "Come on in, then. But this visit will have to be short. We don't have much time to deal with inconveniences today."

Leblanc's frown sunk and after pausing for a moment, she stepped past the gap between the two Chaser men, sparing a glance behind her to her two boys, before being coaxed to step further in by Dardel. When the Gullwings, the last to enter, were ushered in and the heavy doors shut behind them, Dardel noticed Leblanc surveying her surroundings and swept his hand through the air to ask-

"What do you think?"

Leblanc had already finished looking around the finely furnished and crisp smelling room, not finding the useless frivolous things that usually decorated her home, like trappings and wall hangings, and directed her eyes over at Dardel with a forced bored expression. It actually wasn't a bad place to look at, just very practical and spotless, but Leblanc didn't like them and they weren't going to earn a compliment.

Logos sniffed and asked, much to Leblanc's amusement, "Have you ever walked into a place and had the instant urge to burn it down?"

Dardel leaned back and again lost his cool smile, "My, my, I will blame the fact that you're currently cursed as the excuse for why your being blatantly rude."

"Or," Logos proposed sarcastically and with as much sharpness as Dardel had met him with, "It might be from the fact that we had a run-in with a group of high-strung sphere hunters that stole the spheres we had just only recently acquired and left us to die, or suffer some dark fate of a mysterious curse!"

Dardel raised his shoulders and took a step towards the gunner, Ormi in turn stiffening and balling up his fists beside his companion. The leader of the Chasers lowered his voice to a harsh spitting whisper and leaned into Logos's unseeing face, "If I were you, I'd watch what I say if you hoped for any chance of getting answers from the Chasers!"

"No doubt-" Logos began slowly and with a dangerous narrowing in his already thin and intimidating eyes, "That whether or not you wanted to give up the answers by choice, and even considering our current-hrm-conditions, you'd be required to tell us everything we 'ask' of you."

"Oh ho~," Dardel leaned his head back and seemingly sized Logos up, remembering slicing through his clothes back in the ruin with a grin, "Is that a threat I hear?"

"I assure you, a promise." Logos bared his teeth and his arms stiffened at his sides.

Dardel seized up the front of Logos's coat and pulled the already tall man as high as he could, the other gripping the forearms he felt for with one hand and pulling up a fist on the other side.

"Stop it!" Yuna's soft voice pierced the air and before either of the men knew it, she was at their sides. Seemingly of course, only she had seen Leblanc slip her sharp metal fan out from behind her and Ormi widen out his arms to smash the Chaser's leader.

"Why can't you just tell them about the curse?" Yuna furrowed her delicate brows and her whole body was tensed with the heroic determination that was common of her character.

Dardel smirked, his hand still gripping the front of Logos's coat before the gunner smacked it away with a flat gloved hand in disgust. Dardel glanced at his stinging hand then replaced his predatory eyes on the Former High Summoner's face, "Because-" He showed his narrow teeth through the triangle his mouth made, "What do I owe these men and woman? Nothing, that's what. I have no need to help them, and they don't have the privilege of asking for it."

"Meanies!" Rikku shot out and stuck her tongue childishly out to the leader and Reo while she was at it.

"The way of the world," Dardel turned to Leblanc from the Al Bhed and added, "And I suggest you leave now. As I've said before, we don't have time for any inconveniences like putting you and your 'goons' in place!"

Leblanc rose up and challenged him with a fierce glare. _How dare you! _

"Dar-del," A sultry voice pulled all the hostile attention up to the stairs. Arlayla sauntered down the steps and somewhat moaned, "Are the new buyers still not here yet?"

Halfway down, Arlayla finally observed the groups standing in the front room, an unfriendly aura around them all. In reaction to them, she simply smiled and tilted her fine silk dress-clad hips, "Well, well, well, if it isn't the Gullwings and the Leblanc Syndicate. I take it your here to demand about the undoing of the curse?"

Being that she was possibly Leblanc's most hated of this already annoying group, Leblanc simply glared, but what they were there for was obvious enough despite the lack of answer.

"Now why are you Gullwings here?" Arlayla seemed just a tad nervous, "The curse should only affect those that pry the spheres from the stand and take it from the treasure room."

Yuna pulled her shoulders up and set her mouth to a tight line, "Tell them how to undo the curse."

"Ha!" Arlayla suddenly laughed and the sound cut through the still air like a razor. She grinned wide, her beautiful exotic eyes sparkling with pleasure, before she lowered her voice to an amused chuckle, "Impossible."

"Why not?" Rikku took a step beside her cousin and bobbed her head at the trio of the Syndicate, "They may not be all that nice of people but they don't deserve to have their senses taken away."

Leblanc gave the Al Bhed a look before intensifying it and diverting it to Arlayla's direction, who once again spoke.

"Can you find out nothing by yourselves?" She rose her voice a pitch, "If you did any research at all on the Monkey Spheres, you'd of known that losing your senses is only a mild part of the curse- just the beginning! Consider yourselves lucky that you had three to take the spheres instead of one foolish hunter that would lose three of his senses at once." Arlayla continued to amble down the steps, lifting her slightly over-long silk hem in her slender hand as she made her way to stand in front of Leblanc, a wicked grin on her painted lips.

"It could be much, much worse you know," She tilted her small chin and pursed her lovely plump lips, "You could've lost your senses and your lives down in that crumbling ruin."

Leblanc lifted her chin haughtily up in the air and centered her gaze on the tan face. Her lips curled, mockingly, before she slapped her steel fan against her hip bone, producing a loud clang that sliced through the air as Arlayla's earlier laugh had done.

The Chaser woman lifted a dark colored brow and opened her mouth in a small 'o', "Ooh, you think your strong enough to survive just about anything, don't you?"

She had survived Vegnagun hadn't she?

Leblanc continued to smile before it gradually lowered as Arlayla stared at her seriously.

For a moment, light seemingly left her eyes and the woman stated with darkness hidden under her voice, "The curse is far more deadly than you think."

* * *

**A/N: This seems to be heating up, no? One wonders what will happen next, but it will only continue from this point with your lovely reviews! **


	5. Chapter 5

_**.-.-.-.**_

_**Speak No Evil, Hear No Evil, See No Evil**_

_Chapter Five: The Syndicate's Newest and Most Difficult Challenge- Survival  
_

* * *

_For a moment, light seemingly left her eyes and the woman stated with darkness hidden under her voice, "The curse is far more deadly than you think."_

Leblanc gave the woman the most incredulous look before adjusting her weight to lean on her other hip, still tightly clutching her fan in her gloved hand, and one foot tapped lightly.

Arlayla shrugged, her voice grim as it was before, "Fine, don't believe me. That's your choice."

"Now wait a moment," Logos 'looked' in her direction and lifted a palm into the air, "What do you exactly mean by deadly?"

"What else does anyone mean by deadly?" Reo lifted a corner of his rough lips to snarl in the gunner's direction, "Arlayla is always keen on researching each of our targets thoroughly before we even think of going after the spheres. She found that these spheres were a prize, but with a catch."

Arlayla interrupted him with a shrill and cruel crack of laughter, "Didn't any one of you thought it a bit strange that no guardian beast reared its ugly head when you approached the stand? For such experienced sphere hunters, I'd of suspected you'd pick up on such an odd situation. Three extremely rare and _powerful _spheres with not so much as a starved fiend to defend it? If you had realized it sooner, you wouldn't be in this mess now."

Leblanc's hand tightened around the hilt of her fan, her eyes narrowing dangerously. The urge to hit the woman was growing stronger, but Leblanc repressed it with only the flimsy thought that Arlayla might still tell them how to undo this curse. So what if it was deadly? She thought, and might have voiced if she could, If we undo it quickly then we won't have to worry about it!

Arlayla met the glare with challenging eyes. Then, her head lifted, her arms crossing firmly under her breasts, "You still think you can handle anything, don't you?"

When the Syndicate leader realized that the Chaser expected an answer, Leblanc gave a curt nod, her brows furrowing as Arlayla's frown deepened.

"Don't be stupid. You're only human." Arlayla looked to each of the cursed faces, something that may have been pity behind her sneering eyes, though it was hard to tell. "I'm telling you. There is no way to undo the curse. It's far too strong to resist and-"

Paine's mellow tone was sharpened into a dreary sort of annoyed tone, and easily slipped between Arlayla's next words, "You sure know an awful lot about this curse that no one's even heard about."

Arlayla blinked, her eyes narrowed.

The black-clad warrior lifted a silvery brow, "How can we be sure if what you say is true?"

"Yeah!" Rikku's high-pitched voice rose accusingly after Paine's sentence died, "You might just want to scare us off so Leblanc or Yunie won't take the spheres!"

Arlyala indignantly scoffed and straightened her stiffly held spine, her voice taking on superior tones, "My research is never wrong! True, there may not have been a curse, it was only believed to be a myth after all, but the ailments that the Leblanc Syndicate are suffering now are proof enough that what I know is indeed real!" She turned to Paine with eyes flashing, "You think that I don't have enough information on the subject? You want to test me? Fine! I'll show you-"

She took a breath and crossed her arms again from where they had turned to her side and balled into fists. A bit more calmer, she stated levely, "I'll be completely honest when I say there is many things I didn't know, and may still not know, about this curse, but what I do know is bad enough for your _friends _over there." She jerked a head over at the Leblanc Syndicate for emphasis, "They'll be dead in a week, two weeks if they're as lucky as their reputation suggests."

"Who put the curse there?" Paine remained unfazed at the increasingly offended tones of the Chaser, instead seizing the chance to question freely.

"Agony and pain," The Chaser woman answered smoothly, "There is a guardian that protected the spheres, though not a conventional one as you can tell. Horrible things happened a long time ago, and they just stewed down in those ruins all those years waiting to be unleashed upon the unwary." Arlayla paused and was pleased to see all the rival sphere hunters before her perk up in grave interest. She lifted her chin mightily into the air and let her plump lips curl pleasantly.

"The 'beast', if you can even call it that, was a monster of some sort, hideous even on terms of fiends. Evidently it wreaked havoc with it's dark powers on the people of Zanarkand sometime during the Machina War. The only way to stop it was to seal it away, which a Summoner of great power did into a part of Zanarkand that was already destroyed, the very ruin we all entered to retrieve the spheres."

Arlayla crossed her arms over her torso, "The only way the Summoner could seal it though was to weaken it into a feeble and pitiful state, achieved by stripping the monster of a great part of its senses. It was little more than a harmless, crippled animal with a vengeful spirit by the end of it. But, of course, we all are well aware of how angry spirits tend to- manifest in the most unpleasant of forms when left alone."

Leblanc swallowed, feeling her palms start to sweat as Arlayla's eyes hooded and she looked down, her cruel joy seemingly fading a bit and actually being replaced with a sympathetic gaze.

"It had already been unleashed on a few treasure seekers, not in any recent years but close enough for there to have been decent…reports in the Bevelle archive, you see. Rather detailed reports actually." She shivered and the others, excluding her teammates who frowned, stiffened with her, "No one ever walked away with the spheres for long. I-I'm guessing on a few things, but this is probably what logically happened, how the spheres themselves got down there with the nasty beast-spirit anyways-"

Arlayla's forced professional tone, devoid of emotion, only added emphasis on her occasional shaking and bits of flicked out fear, "The three spheres are records of a rather nasty event in our history." She gained enough control at this point to keep herself from shuddering in memory of what was on the spheres, "It's of a…a family I think. I'm can't be sure. They were dubbed criminals, but… i-in any case the first two records are of their punishments and sentence. The last, one of their last moments I presume."

Arlayla looked down to the lush carpet and grew silent. Her dark eyes were staring through the carpet, back into her mind, and she remembered the horrific images that appeared when they scanned them at home, filling in blanks of the myth that she'd rather of not known.

Dardel spoke up, his voice calm, but dark and low in his throat, "We guess that when the criminals were thrown into the ruins in exile the senseless beast feasted on their pain and inevitably their bodies to regain some of it's former power. And, with spheres so personal and connected to the horrid event thrown down with them as well, the spirits of the criminals simply attached themselves to the painful memories within the spheres when they couldn't move on. That alone made the spheres somewhat powerful."

Rikku made a loud 'Hmph!' sound and clearly pouted in his direction, a look that obviously conveyed disgust in the simple way Dardel valued the spheres in a detached and businesslike manner even as he described the tragic events attached to them.

Dardel hardly noticed however and continued on, "-However the true power of the spheres came when the beast, continuing to consume their pain and negative energy, finally gained more power than the three spirits combined. Thus, it obtained the ability to manipulate their tortured souls. With this new found power, it afflicted all that decided to take away its treasure with a curse of its own misfortunes and that of the three criminals it devoured, gaining even more power with each body that fell next. Anyone that has ever tried to pry the spheres from the stand and leave the treasure room were cursed by that creature, their senses taken from them, before-"

The Chaser leader took a moment to think, obviously trying to find the words to describe the situation as delicately as possible. Logos, listening intently to the details, finally grew uncomfortable in the silence and demanded, "Before what?"

Dardel's cold eyes looked up to the clouded ones, knowing their doom, "As Arlayla has said before, the loss of your senses in merely the beginning, the point of the blade."

"In one case," The Chaser woman began weakly, her eyes somewhat returning to the present time, "A man lost his three senses and was found outside of Zanarkand by a friend of his that accompanied him but did not touch the spheres, having heard rumors of the curse and fearing for his own protection. In the weeks following, the man began to feel extreme pain, howling about torture, and things that weren't there. Then, he began to threaten anybody near him. He went insane and became very paranoid. The friend apparently worked hard to free him of this curse and thought that returning the spheres to the stand would help. However, when he arrived in the treasure room, he found they were already back in place. The man died two days later in his sleep, though his body was twisted up in pain."

Leblanc's shoulders sunk ever so slightly, but Arlayla was not done.

"Another case was a man and wife, treasure hunters by trade, that went in to find the spheres. Both were cursed, the husband losing the ability to talk and see, the wife the hearing, and soon they began to feel the pain that the previous case had felt as well. The wife soon became paranoid first, claiming things were after her and swore to kill all around her even without provocation. They died at the end of the week, the woman shot the husband and then herself after realizing what she had done. All events witnessed in the hospital they were staying at to try and cure themselves."

A silence, tension and dread interlaced within, filled the room.

"There had been more cases, but need you hear of them? They're all about the same except perhaps a few details. Regardless, the end result never differs." Arlayla narrowed her eyes, "And I suppose it will only happen again."

The Former High Summoner's kind voice broke abruptly, almost violently, as her tone rose to a desperate pitch, "But, there has to be a way to undo what's been done!"

Arlayla shook her head, "Not a chance."

"Why?" Yuna demanded, her eyes glowing with emotion. They screamed, _This isn't fair! That's wicked! _and _No one deserves this! _

"There had to have been something to help! There is something we could do now!" Yuna declared, her small white hands rolled into tight fists and rising in front of her body.

"Not all things can be helped," The Chaser woman looked up, her face suddenly pitiless, "It is the price for carelessness."

"Surely there is something that we could do. If we work together maybe-!" Yuna began hopefully, her voice raising to a tone of righteousness which was interrupted by a scoff.

"Why? To what do we owe them?"

Dardel smirked frigidly at Yuna's unbelieving face, pure shock behind her innocent eyes.

Yuna's shoulders rose to a sharp angry angle, eyes shining, and her tight fists shaking at her sides, "But- that's not right!"

"Who is to determine what is right? I take care of my own, as they should've taken better care of theirs. Is it _my _problem that they are incompetent in the matter? Is it _my _problem that they are hurting now, these three strangers whom I've only met at the edge of my weapon? As a matter of fact, I'm trying to understand what _you _owe them for."

A slap broke the tension in the air, for a split moment, distracting all occupants in the room to turn towards the sound. Leblanc slowly withdrew her palm from her hip and lifted up the notepad in her other hand. She flicked a pen from her sleeve, and started to write with swift, purposeful strokes across the page. Looking briefly up to see if she had the room's undivided attention, she flipped the book over to reveal-

**I don't care who owes who. Give us the spheres and you won't have to deal with the suffering and pain that **_**I **_**can deliver. Nothing will stop the Leblanc Syndicate! Not even your pointless doubts, love! Tell me all you know about this stupid curse NOW! We'll figure out the rest with or without anybody's help!**

"Are you threatening me?" Dardel lifted his brow as he finished reading , and scoffed once more, "I'll inform you that it's hardly working."

Leblanc slapped the notebook down on a table and pulled out her fan from her hip again, snapping it to it's full length, and stared as hard she could into Dardel's icy eyes. The other Chaser's seemingly stiffened, their weapons nowhere to be seen.

To the sound of the metal fan unfolding, Logos set a hand comfortably inside his coat's inner pockets and reached down with his other hand to rest on his revolver, fingers unsnapping the holster strap that held the gun in place. Ormi had his hands still tightened into fists, and was right with his two companions in the intimidating.

Leblanc lifted a blonde brow as a last warning to surrender the information.

Dardel swallowed, and quickly and confidently smiled at the sight of the Gullwings and their confused faces, particularly Yuna's.

"_Don't fight!" _He remembered her shouting earlier when he was going to put the Syndicate gunner in his place. She was such a goody-two shoes that she would stop anyone from hurting so much as a hair on any other's head.

"I'm not afraid of-" Dardel started to push the fan away from his face with the flat of his hand, when the weapon suddenly pulled back, leaving a line of red on the back of his hand from the razor sharp ends that curved in, and then was promptly and swiftly smacked hard across his face. Dardel rose up from where his body had bent down, a hand on his mouth, and his other raised as if to strike Leblanc across her face in retaliation, as he shouted, "Why you bitch-!"

A revolver muzzle was pressed into his temple, stopping him from making any other sudden move. Dardel moved his eyes to his teammates, only to see Logos's finger of his other hand not holding the trigger wag in a warning before his oily voice slurred, "I wouldn't move if I were you. I may not be able to see but there is hardly any aiming required right now, is there?"

Ormi moved between his group-mates that held Dardel frozen in place and the Chasers, his fists tight at his sides.

"Wait-" Yuna started before Logos cut her off.

"Stay out of this, Little Girl. We've only so much time and it shouldn't be wasted by avoiding to play seriously."

Leblanc gave one nod to affirm that she agreed. Her eyes were locked with the Chaser leader before he swallowed once and his angry frown turned into a smirk.

"So you all want to know how to undo the curse so badly?" Dardel laughed, Leblanc feeling chills from the way it was delivered; not at all like someone who was cracking under pressure. He flicked his head at Arlayla, who looked worriedly down at the carpet, and barked, "My soft-hearted teammate was trying to spare you from even more concern over this unbreakable curse, but so be it! Go ahead and show it to them!"

Slowly, the Syndicate and Gullwings turned to face the woman of the Chaser group. She lifted her eyes from the ground and unemotionally spat, "Release Dardel, then follow me."

Arlayla wasted no time and whirled around to the stairs angrily, avoiding eye contact with her leader, and picked up the hem of her silk gown to climb the stairs. With a few anxious glances (excluding Logos who shifted uncomfortably and lowered his revolver from a firm pat of Leblanc's glove against his arm) the two sphere hunting groups started up after the woman who hastily moved in front of them, obviously showing that she wanted to get the act over with as soon as possible.

Yuna led the way, running after Arlayla who swiftly twisted and turned through the home, before she stopped in front of heavy double doors made of blackened wood. The Chaser woman graciously waited for the rest to catch up, Logos being roughly dragged again by Ormi who was trying to still sort out the fast paced words that had been exchanged moments before. Arlayla checked behind the entire group, before lowering her voice and her eyes, "It won't be pleasant. Are you sure you want to know?"

The question was directed at Leblanc, who nodded firmly. Arlayla hesitated for a few moments more, before turning violently to the doors and pushing them aside, rushing into the room for the others to enter behind her.

Shelves upon shelves of glowing treasures lined the room, while at the very end in front of an immense latticed window was a whirring oscillofinder and a scanning device. Arlayla roughly punched buttons on the keypad of the computer, the screen buzzing to life and blinking the words in orange 'Monkey Sphere 1' before turning to the two groups with a sickened yet angry face, "You want to know what's going to happen to you?" She demanded, "You're stuck without your senses, and I keep telling you its only going to get worse. But, you don't listen, you just have to know, don't you? You'll just suffer, there is no cure, until you die from _this _agony!"

At the word 'this', Arlayla jammed one last button that activated a clear picture on the scanner's screen, of three people, tied together, and something that all the occupants of the room was sickened to hear and see.

"_Please, stop! Don't harm her, please! I'll do anything, just STOP!"_

A tormented scream ripped into the air and the high pitch caused Logos to wince and turn his head away from the sound. The screen was suddenly too dark to see anything, but each group's eyes were glued to it nonetheless.

_P-please- We promise not to do it again! We promise! Don't hurt us anymore. _It was a small voice, young. So young, Leblanc couldn't even tell if it was a boy or a girl. The camera view finally skimmed over a corner of something flat before swiftly moving up, a smear of a cold wall flying past.

_I swear I'll kill you! I'll kill you! _It was a woman's voice, full of heated hate, _You will pay for this! I won't let anyone of you bastards live! _

_It's what you get! _A gruff voice blared and the view of the picture actually focused on a thickly built solider with a red uniform, _Do you think you can honestly fight for Zanarkand and get away with it? You betrayed your own kind!_

The man's voice that had earlier begged growled in the video, _It is you who has betrayed us. This war is pointless! It has to end. Look at yourselves! _The man's face flashed into the screen, his eyes shining with emotion and blood pouring down his face, his voice passionately screaming, spit and specks of blood flying from his lips, _You are torturing your own people that were fighting for peace! Peace, damnit! _

_Shut up! _A loud crack followed by a chilling silence from the man erupted from the scanner's speakers. The solider quickly turned to the child who was shouting, _We're sorry, stop hurting us, please! _and brutally back-handed the round face into a submissive whine.

_I'll kill you-! I'll kill you! _The woman repeated over and over again, her voice ripping from the volume of her promises, _You will die for this. I swear. You will die! Die! **Die!**_

The image froze for a split second on the woman's crazed face before it blinked and then turned back into a dark, blank screen, dead-noise from the speakers. Leblanc rose her head a little higher, figuring it was over, before a bloodcurdling scream shattered the grimly silent room that watched the monitor flicker back to life and change to a different better-lighted room.

_Leave him alone! _

A crack of a whip followed by a bitten off scream brought the image of the man on his knees, arms bound straight out to his sides, and his back striped in diagonal red shreds of meat. A child's head was seen in the corner of the screen, the body it belonged to pushed and chained against the back wall of the image, and it's innocent bluish-gray eyes wide in horror.

The whip quickly slashed through the air and the man arched his back against the blow, screaming into the air above him, before bending forward weakly. The boy screamed again with tears falling down his face in flurries, choking on his words, _L-leave him alone!_

_I'll kill you, I'll kill you, I'll kill you, I'll kill you- _A sporadic muttering slipped into the video's audio before the camera view turned to see the woman tied to a chair, needles sticking out of her hands and her eyes devoid of emotion as she swayed in her seat, chanting her gruesome pledge,- _You will die. I will kill you. _

_Shut up, _The recorder told the woman before she cackled.

_I'll kill you! _

The screen fuzzed out for a second or two before there was an audible click and the man was now strapped down to a table and a shiny blade was put to his stomach, his howls of pain echoed into the huge room inside the Chaser's mansion. Blood slipped down his bare torso, pooling against his sides, zigzagging between wounds that was already marking his body.

_Please stop! _The boy's voice begged, _Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop!_

The screen fizzled again and then there was the audible click, this time a dead silence filling up a space of five full unnerving seconds, the image of the woman in a cell, staring through her matted hair and the top of her dark circled eyelids gradually getting closer as the camera man zoomed on her tortured face-

Her lips slowly opened, two sickeningly simple words falling out of her scabby lips with a low, drawn-out, raspy hiss, _You'll pay._

The machine whirred loudly, a fan kicking in and sputtering, before the words 'Monkey Sphere 2' flickered across the blackened screen and then a sudden bright light flashed over it, erasing it, and a roar erupted through the speakers.

Three figures stood on a platform that looked like a scaffold, the tallest being the broad shouldered man from the first sphere who was leaning into the one half his size, the boy, while the woman stood whispering in inaudible spits and hisses. All their hands were bound in front of them, and tied together, as they faced a screaming crowd and a man with a piece of paper, reading from it in a booming and judgmental voice.

-_You have been charged with treason and assistance to the enemy, and are now to be judged for your crimes. By the decision of your village you are henceforth __**exiled **__to the ruins of Zanarkand. And it is where you stand now that you shall be forever bound to. _

The man paused for effect it seemed, but the three 'criminals' were unshaken, devoid of any emotion or humanity. The boy did look briefly down at his feet, apparently registering for the first time where it was they were, before leaning his head into the wounded man's.

A pleased and satisfied rumble moved through the crowd in a horrible wave. The man read on-

_-Where, you will either die waiting for your Zanarkand allies that will not assist you, or the beast will consume your senses and finally your souls. No Summoner will be sent to you. Do you understand the nature of your punishment?_

The man squirmed, showing for the first time some sign of life besides standing on his knees and leaning into the child, before coughing roughly. The man reading the sentence raised a brow and the crowd dulled into a hushed listening tone as the man choked out- _I see what the nature of this punishment is, make no mistake of that. You think of this as revenge or retribution to your war effort. I see it for what it is- Senseless Murder! _

The crowd rose to an angry screech, fists flying in the air and blocking out the image of the man at times as it pumped the air and demanded the punishment be delivered swiftly for the man's insolence. The boy's head peeked out between the closed hands, his head held high as he kept his stance against the injured man's weight leaning into him. The woman suddenly screamed above them all, _You'll all die! _

The screen jerked to the side before clicking sounded once more, a gaping hole in the ground opening up in the movie's screen as the three people tied together were forced to the edge of it. The guard in red who had tortured them bellowed, _Any last words? _

_I'll kill! Kill! _The woman hysterically babbled over the crowd's shouting heads before the man was shoved down into the black hole, swallowing him easily, and his weight yanked the boy off his feet to follow him down and finally the woman, her words echoing eerily as she fell, _I'll kill! KILL! _

A sudden quiet fell over the group of people in the sphere, waiting, before a sickening smack signaled what they had all gathered for. A cheer erupted among them before pyre flies rose from the hole in a powerful gust of lights and force before the screen flashed white, engulfed by the pyre flies.

'Monkey Sphere 3' flashed onto the screen and there was one final whirring click…

It was dark though occasional pyre flies rose from the floor. Their ghostly wail only somewhat masked a childish whine, and a deep groan, before there was scrapping of the recorder over the rocky floor and a young voice spoke through the dimness.

_How nice of them to throw down our pack now. _The young voice was surprisingly (or perhaps not) bitter._ I think they broke my recorder, I don't know. The light's not coming on but I think it might still work._

_Do you still have your medical supplies in there, boy?_

_Sure do. I'll bring it to you._

There was shuffling before the camera finally adjusted to the dim light and revealed the man laying down and a small body leaning over him with a bandage tightly pulled in front of him.

The little shadow sniffled, _It's all kiddy stuff. I don't think it will help._

_Every little bit helps, don't cry._

_I-I'm not c-crying! _The voice cracked, _W-why do they have to do all this to us? Why's Mum not like she used to be? She can't hear what I'm saying anymore and she just mumbles to herself. It's scaring me! And why won't anybody see that what they are doing is wrong? No one ever listened to what you said-_The little voice broke even more as a ragged cry issued forth from his pale lips, _I don't understand! I don't see why this happened to us! _

_She'll get better, with time. Right now we're alive. I'm sure they didn't expect that. All we have to do is get well again and then we can go. _

The man's voice was kind and reassuring, a gruff, level tone. The boy seemed comforted, for a brief moment. Then, his shoulders started shaking with silent hiccups before he bawled-

_But there's a monster down here! I hear it will take all your senses and-_

_A superstition, boy, calm down. _

_But-_

_Don't be scared! I'm here, and I'll protect you and your Mum, alright? Now bring that medical bag closer-_

The small form started to obey, but just before it turned away the boy's head shot up and squeaked, _Mum? What are ya doing? _

_Wait! Stop! _the man's voice rose before he sat up on his elbows jerkingly to try and move, but he wasn't fast enough as a thin figure flew into the camera's screen and there was a loud crack.

_MUM! STOP IT!_

Another crack and something that sound like a squish, before the boy screamed loudly, _Mum stop! Don't hurt him! He's hurt bad enough, Mum!_

Thin arms rose in the air, showing an irregular shape, possibly a rock, clutched in her hands. The little boy dove over the body that she was working on smashing and there was a tiny squall when it hit the boy's back. There was a cough, from the man, that was lined with fluid, and the woman paused, the rock still laying over her son's shoulders.

_We have to die. We have to die now or something terrible will happen! _She was hysterical, _**It **__will come. I've already heard __**it**__ limping down the halls, __**it **__already knows we're here!_

_You're not yourself! Calm down. We're alive and I'll get us out of this._

The voice lowered to a tone of hate, _It's all __**your **__fault we're here. It's all __**your**__ fault. I love my son and I'll kill him to save him from more pain. But __**you **__I hate! I'll kill you to be __**rid**__ of you!_

The thin arms rose in the air again and the boy shrilly cried, _Mum no! _

There was a howl of pain, belonging to a small voice, then a roar from a mature voice that lurched forward and grappled with the woman, forcing her on her back and holding down her arms.

_Stop it! _

_Let go of me! _

_Calm down!_

_I'll kill!_

_**Mum! **_

The man wrestled the rock from her hands, his face pouring blood all over the woman, before he hurled it with both hands away from them, his body weight pinning her down from the hips. The rock flew towards the camera and there was a crash, before the screen fizzled away.

Arylayla stared at their faces, the Gullwings pulled in something resembling silent horror, while the Syndicate's just looked sick to their stomachs.

Ormi couldn't understand nor wrap his head around the disturbing images he saw, but swallowed it down as he looked to his boss hopefully.

Leblanc raised her head to the Chaser woman, her chin lifting up into the air, and she angled a brow, defiantly asking, _Well? You have something else to say, so say it. _

"They probably died shortly after." Arlayla nearly whispered, "It's so strange…documents this old would have been badly deteriorated or damaged, however the images were quiet clear and we've thoroughly checked them and checked again to prove their authenticity." She shook her head, her eyes wide before she closed them, "It disturbs me greatly, this whole thing. The so-called 'demon' may not be real, but considering the loss of your senses, I presume it might be more real than I ever would've thought before. It can't be mere coincidence. And if the reports are true, then darker things await ahead…"

Leblanc rose her head high, her mouth twisting into a half frown.

"If you can survive that agony and whatever the demon has in store for you, then maybe you will be free of the curse," Arlayla smiled, "And I'll give you these spheres. You'd of earned it. Though, don't get your hopes up-" Her round face fell along with her smile. "I only say that because I don't expect you to live."

* * *

**A/N: I love this story. It's so...wicked. :D  
**


	6. Chapter 6

_**-.-.-.-.-**_

_**Speak No Evil, Hear No Evil, See No Evil**_

_Chapter 6: Defeat, Determination and Discussions in Dreams_

* * *

The Bevellian light was harsh against their eyes and the cheery atmosphere it projected was intrusive on all of the groups' deeper thoughts as they were ushered outside. The door slammed coldly on their backs, Dardel's pale hand having shut them out, and only Rikku took the time to frown behind her at the mean group's home.

Leblanc looked honestly crestfallen (almost more defeated then when she discovered Nooj was missing) and she walked away from the headquarters without so much as a nasty look behind her. Yuna lifted her head and turned to slowly look at her companions with sympathetic gazes, before they observed a downhearted Ormi and Logos shuffle past to faithfully follow their leader.

Yuna softly adverted her dual-colored eyes to the ground, at a loss for words, and gently proceeded after the cursed group, her teammates solemnly following her.

Ormi chewed a little on his words, hesitant to ask the question that was dancing through all their minds first, but desperate to know the answer to it. He lifted his dull black eyes and blared, rather hopelessly, "NOW WHAT ARE WE'S GONNA DO?!"

"It seems the only thing we can do is wait for this curse to finish us." Logos sneered, his hand rubbing away at the pain in his ears though, this time, he made no comment about it.

_No! _Leblanc's brow creased. There had to be something, _anything,_ to prevent that from happening. Her feet planted in the street but she couldn't bring herself to look back at her employees, who she could hear stop a respectful distance behind her. Only one response echoed in her head forlornly, _I don't know what to do. We're going to die…_

The Gullwings watched at a greater distance behind, Yuna feeling much like an outsider in this grave situation and thoroughly upset that she couldn't come up with a solution to help her rival. Rikku made a soft whine in her throat, before her sad and pulled down face slowly stepped to Yuna's side, her voice low and pitiful as she whimpered, "Yunie…" and shook a little.

"Rikku?" Yuna turned to her cousin to find her uncharacteristically dejected face.

"We couldn't help at all," Rikku turned a somewhat mean eye back towards where they came from as Paine took a step up to Yuna's other side, "And of course _they _weren't much help either. But, do you really think that all that's going to happen…to _them?_" Rikku looked back ahead at the slouched backs of two uniformed men and a stiff yet unmistakably sad form of their leader.

"It could've easily been us in their place," Paine said thoughtfully, her black-clad hips turning as she looked down at the colorful stone, her arms folding neatly under her arms before her red eyes flicked back up to the Syndicate.

"I can hardly believe it either…" Yuna agreed and quietly added, "There _has _to be something…"

"Ooh, Yunie," Rikku gripped her sweet cousin's arm, "What are they going to do?"

Yuna's lips trembled a bit before she nearly whispered, "I don't know."

The Celsius picked them up, and with their gloomy mood, Brother, Buddy, Shinra and Barkeep made no move as to inquire how it went (though the Gullwings informed them when the Leblanc Syndicate sat silently on the deck) and they proceeded to fly through the skies, unsure of their next destination.

"Leblanc?" Yuna asked after some length, knowing that there should be some time to themselves before asking anything of them. But, after a couple of laps around Bevelle, Brother had to either land or go somewhere, or else the New Yevon people might wonder what they were doing. Yuna folded her arms before her, head bent slightly down to see Leblanc sitting on the edge of the deck, holding onto the gull ornament with one light hand.

"Leblanc?" Yuna asked again softly.

Leblanc turned her head slightly to show that she heard her.

Ormi and Logos were standing some distance behind Leblanc, to the sound of her voice and the motions that the warrior saw of them starting a conversation, they both lifted their heads from their slouched shoulders to wait for the outcome.

"We need to know what you plan to do." Yuna bent her head down further when the Syndicate leader looked directly at her, her eyes slightly red. Yuna's voice was full of pity and sympathy when she offered, "Do you want us to take you home?"

Leblanc shook her head negatively. If it was truly their last moments, and there wasn't a cure and no hope, then that would be a logical place to return to. After all, it wouldn't make a difference if they went anywhere else in all of Spira, would it? But, Leblanc couldn't accept the fact that it was true. They would live, they'd find a way, a cure, and they'd have all the rest of their time to be thankful for the close call.

"Do you want to see Nooj?"

Leblanc head rose a bit higher and she turned to look at the Former High Summoner. She simply couldn't find it in herself to write explanations, that where she wanted to go, she wasn't sure, but wherever the cure was is where she needed to be. Her heart clenched at the thought of Nooj, with the very likely possibility that she might not ever see him again, but she couldn't waste time when the cure was just laying in wait somewhere. And with how she didn't even know how long her and the boys would last as it was...

There was an awkward cough and Leblanc and Yuna looked around to see Logos shifting his weight with the side of his fist to his mouth. Ormi's eyes were drawn to read his lips as Logos started, "Erm, Boss… we, that is Ormi and I, wouldn't mind if you wanted to see the Meyvn. Seeing that it is only a matter of time before…"

Leblanc rose quickly, but Logos was unable to see it and continued on- "- well, this curse runs its course. You see, Ormi and I haven't anything left to do, but we'll gladly follow you to the Youth League so you can- Boss?"

His sightless eyes flitted down to the hand that rested on his chest. He couldn't see it, but he could feel Leblanc's stern expression through how she pushed firmly against him. And he couldn't understand how or why, but he knew that she was quite _angry _with what he had just said.

"B-boss?" He nearly forgot she couldn't speak to him, but the lack of any response made him nervous just the same.

Leblanc's hand rolled into a fist against his clothes, taking a handful from his shirt into her palm, before she pushed with all her might against him. He blindly stumbled backwards before landing on his rear and catching himself from falling all the way onto his back by twisting his torso and catching himself with his elbow. The altitude related wind was picking up, so most of his voice was carried away, but nonetheless the gunner yelled, "Boss?!"

Leblanc stood her full height, her hands pressing into her hips as she glared a fiery and newly determined face down at her subordinate. Yuna had gasped when Leblanc pushed Logos over, and Ormi made to catch him but didn't after seeing Leblanc's clearly livid expression, but now both watched in wide-eyed surprise as Leblanc flipped out the notepad and started to scribble things on a sheet of paper before tearing it out with wetness in her eyes and shoving it into Yuna's hands. Yuna grabbed it firmly before the wind caught it, and looked up with a jolt as Leblanc stormed back into the Celsius and shut the door.

Ormi watched the door shut before picking a rather miserable looking gunner up from the metal as Yuna's dual-colored eyes looked down at the paper in her hand.

**Tell Logos that I'm not planning on going to the Youth League right now because I'm not planning on dying just yet! Tell him that he WILL NOT GIVE UP until he's seeing the Farplane stretched out ahead of him. And tell Ormi to get his act together and stop pouting! It's time for the boys and me to go **_**back. **_**If you want to help, tell that Al Bhed guy that he'll drop us off at the ruin where the Monkey Spheres were buried. We'll handle the rest ourselves from there. **

"She can't possibly-" Yuna started before looking up to see the two Goons looking at her inquisitively. "Leblanc…doesn't think you should give up yet." Yuna said softly, "You are going to do everything to find a cure."

She extended a small smile before handing the paper to Ormi in case he didn't catch what her lips had said. He scanned over the quickly written words, beamed, and grabbed the back of Logos's shirt with a jerk and bounded back into the Celsius with renewed vitality. Logos himself was a bit livelier, or so it seemed, as he yelled at Ormi about being hoisted about so suddenly all the time.

Yuna turned her eyes to the gull ornament, then past it into the sweeping landscape of Spira and the clear blue skies. There just had to be a way for everything to turn out alright, wasn't there?

* * *

Though Zanarkand was a short distance away, and the Celsius zoomed to it in no time at all, night had fallen before they reached it. Under the wide expanse of dark glittering sky, the airship landed and the passengers and crew disembarked.

"Might as well wait for morning," Buddy advised in his very neutral voice, "It won't do any good to try and go in there now. A full night's rest can't hurt anything either…"

Yuna peeked at Leblanc's hanging blonde head, "Do you mind?"

Leblanc, her eyes drooping, shook her head wearily and turned to follow the Gullwings, who were building up a fire over the smooth gray ground. The Smart Gullwing Kid returned from the inside of the ship, with arms full of blankets and sleeping-bags, before he trotted back into the ship. It was obvious he wasn't too excited about camping outdoors.

Brother yawned wide in the flickering orange firelight, for he had stayed talking to Yuna for a while more, before dimly saying something about going back into the ship to sleep. Just as he finished his thought, he fell backwards, his legs and arms sprawled, and took to a rough rattling that resembled that of a machine with bad oil.

Logos twitched, annoyed at the sound, before Leblanc realized with a dull smile that the boy was actually snoring.

Yuna laughed lightly and fetched a blanket that was piled close by, and laid it over the lean frame of the childish man that curled up into it and into a fetal position. Rikku let out an annoyed sound and rolled her eyes at her brother, accepting the sleeping sack that Yuna handed to her next.

Paine had already laid down, a blanket strewn over her black-clad form. Her red hues glowed in the light as she watched Yuna carry two sleeping-bags and a large blanket across the fire to the Syndicate, who quietly stared into the dancing flames.

Leblanc nodded and took the first sack that was handed to her. Ormi rolled up in the blanket and laid himself out on the ground, while Logos took the other sleeping bag.

To Leblanc's down-pulled face, Yuna smiled ever so slightly and cheered, "It will be okay. We'll find a way to break this curse. I just know it."

The leader looked up into the hopeful and incredibly naïve face of the Former High Summoner, a soundless sigh escaping her soft lips. Then, without meaning to, a tiny curl showed at the end of her mouth and she offered a smile in return for the kind words.

Leblanc nodded, and spread the bag out to find rest as well. Yuna slipped between her cousin and the warrior and stretched for sleep. Ormi was already obliviously snoring as loud as Brother, and the gunner's breaths were drawn out and even.

The Syndicate leader closed her eyes, the first real rest she's allowed herself since contracting this horrible curse.

_**What are you doing here?!**_

"_Huh?" Leblanc gasped at the rough and mean tone that surprised her, coming from the deep darkness ahead of her. Then, she gasped again as the sound of her own words met her ears, "Ah! I'm cured, I can speak!" _

_**Yeah, you can speak. Some would think that to be obvious, but that doesn't explain what are you doing here. **_

_The tone was bitter, sarcastic. Leblanc stiffened and put her hands on her tilted hips, sharply replying with, "Well, I could ask you the same thing, love. Erm, wherever you are…"_

_From the shadows, a lean, tall man stepped forward, his face scraggly with stubble, his head hung low, and his shoulders sunk like Ormi and Logos's did when they were disappointed or defeated. His eyes were glowing hard with emotion though, both sour and holding all shreds of his dignity. Something about him seemed familiar-_

"_Hah! You're that man!" Leblanc pointed and her legs spread into an even stance, "You're that man from the sphere!" _

_He rolled his eyes, __**Well, aren't you a genius? And as you should already know, you shouldn't be here.**_

"_Well," Leblanc rolled her head and observed her surroundings. Dark muddled shadows, some flowing like blackened mist, "_Where _am I?" _

_**If I were to venture a guess, sleeping. But, that not's what I meant. You shouldn't be here, so close to the thing again. What are you thinking? Was losing your tongue not enough for you?**_

"_Are you saying I shouldn't go back to the ruins?" _

_**Exactly that. What would you gain from making yourself an easier target for that monster anyways?**_

"_Too look for clues! __What else can I do?" Leblanc's proudly held shoulders dropped, her face uncertain for once in her life,"I don't know what I'm doing, but I can't do nothing! I have people counting on me, you know?!"_

_**Yes, as I do. Do you think you're the only one cursed? I'm telling you, there is nothing to gain by going back.**_

"_Then what will you have me do?" Leblanc's furrowed brows haloed the concern in her amber eyes. _

_**Go home.**_

"_Home? What will I gain from going home?" _

_**The monster will have a harder time taking your other senses from farther away, I bet. Leaving you with only our pain to withstand. It will buy you more time anyways, which need I remind you is numbered as it is and very, extremely precious?**_

"_Well, why do I have to go through your pains?"_

_**It's part of the curse. The boy, he's young, and can't withstand against the beast's power for very long, if at all. And the woman, well, let's just say as it is now, her mind is easy to manipulate. I doubt she'll be any challenge for it. And no matter how far you run, the beast has control over our souls first, having beaten us so thoroughly already. Don't you see? They're in the complete control of the monster, and they cannot leave wherever the beast decides to put them.  
**_

"_And what about you?"_

_**I will not leave without them. And, well, this is hard to admit, but it's not easy for me to escape from the beast either. My spirit was wounded.**_

"_How does that happen?" _

_**Well, betrayal of my fellow men might do the trick. Or, the fact that those same fellow men sent me to die in the most horrid way and have me suffer some horrible monster for years upon years...  
**_

"_Ah." Leblanc blinked, she stepping back away from him as he looked up sourly, "But, how do-?"_

_**You break the curse? Easy, I think. I don't know. I've thought up lots of things that hasn't really worked out so well. But, maybe- ah yes. But first you should go home. **_

"_You mean right now?"_

_**Or in a coffin. You decide. **_

* * *

Logos has had this particular dream before, back when he had his eyesight. Nothing much happened it in, but it was distinct and always the same. Two spheres sat on his card table, of strange color (one a dark blue and another a soft blushing color) and he himself sat on the outside chair, positioned at a tilt away from the table to easily accommodate his lazy slouch.

His fingers spun his revolvers in his hands, over and over again. A silvery ring of efficient metal flying in a circle of reliable inhuman partners in his gloved hands.

And this continued until he woke up. His mind was always blank, not so much bored as just at peace, and occasionally a whistled escaped his mouth if it pleased him.

However this time was different-

**Mister, you shouldn't do that. **

_The voice was bubbly, far too young even for the teenage Goons. It was light, indistinguishable from either specific gender, but laced in everlasting innocence. A sound that was never heard in Logos's room, dreams or otherwise. _

_His hands caught the revolvers in their spin, holding the guns pointing forward, ready to fire. Tension loosened in his forearms, and his hands plopped into his legs as he looked over his wide shoulders with half-lidded eyes, only mildly interested since he had the pleasure of already realizing this was a dream. _

"_Why shouldn't I?" _

_**My mum said people can hurt themselves with guns. You should be more careful with them. **_

_Logos was speaking to a crack in his familiar bedroom doors, and it annoyed him. Using too sharp a tone to be directed at a child, since it sounded like one, he snapped, "Come out from behind there and show yourself."_

_The door swayed slightly, showing the body almost pulled it shut in fear but caught itself in the last moment. Then, it swung open revealing a large round head held up by a skinny, frail neck and shoulders, half hidden as the child ducked into his own body. The child was changing his weight from one side to the next, his eyes shifty, and one hand rubbing his other papery white arm nervously._

"_Well, what is it you want?" When no immediate answer came, Logos snarled, "I don't know what you're doing here, but you best leave." _

_His fingers were taunt against the triggers of his guns. He had heard this child before, connected to those spheres played in the Chaser's headquarters, and now that he had him in his sights Logos knew it wasn't a good thing. He'd do whatever he could to prolong any tragedy, or at least, he steeled himself to. _

_It was proving difficult, however, since the child was scared, clearly alone, and about to fall apart at the seams. Finally, Logos roughly sighed. _

"_Look, you brat, tell me what it is that you want," Logos lowered his weapons to his hips as he stood up from the chair. He wouldn't holster the weapons, but he wouldn't hold them in a threatening way to ease the tension in the child's mind. This did little for it, so it seemed, for when Logos straightened his tall frame, the child shrunk even more. _

"_Stop wringing your hands like a girl and answer me," Logos drawled in a low, dark tone, "I'm starting to lose my patience."_

_**I don't know what to do.**_

"_Does any child ever know what to do?" Logos groaned, and put a palm to his face, his fingers releasing the trigger and tilting the gun away to keep his skull in a safe zone. With a little shake of his head, Logos repeated himself, "Tell me what it is that you want."_

_**I-I want to help.**_

"_And?"_

_**I don't know what to do…**_

"_Brilliant. And why are you stalking me from the shadows of my dreams?"_

_**You can't see me when you're awake.**_

"_Can't see much of anything while I'm awake. Though this dream is strange… I feel as I'm awake come to think of it." Logos looked around his room and suddenly became aware of the sound of his breathing, his footsteps, the familiar smell of his home. These details were often forgotten in a dream, or not necessarily present. His sense of touch was also completely intact, the cool of his revolvers penetrating the thin material of his gloves, the usual sensation when grasping the trusty weapons. _

_**I needed to talk to you **__The child said simply, his feet dancing over the wood planks, then as a mumble that Logos probably wasn't meant to hear, __**It's awful you're not nice though…**_

"_Oh excuse me that I'm not in the best of moods as of late," Logos growled, his pinched face closing up into a menacing sneer, "But if you haven't happened to notice, some mysterious monster and a little brat has recently cursed me. Oh, and just a question, why'd you take my damn eyesight?!" _

_The child cringed as Logos's voice grew louder. Then, he muttered while fighting tears, __**I-I didn't want tah take your eyesight, honest. It actually wasn't even me that did it! It's all that thing's fault. No, my part is much worse…I'm sorry, I don't know how to stop it.**_

_Logos rolled his eyes at the 'convenient' non-descriptive answer and bit, "Stop what?"_

_**My part of the curse. Haven't you listened to what that lady said? It'll happen soon enough. You'll have to deal with my pain, until you die…I'm sorry. **__The child started to hiccup and brought round fists to his eyes, rubbing wearily at the fat tears that fell from the watery orbs __**I-I-I'm sorry!**_

"_Oh, please stop blubbering. Tell me more about this curse. Be specific." Logos put his weapons on the card table and lowered himself on one knee to better see the child, "What is going to happen to my boss and friend?"_

_The child hiccoughed and looked up, chokingly asking, __**Wh-wha? Who?**_

"_The lady with spiky blonde hair and a really wide one with a speech impediment. Come now, you've seen me, surely you've seen them."_

_**Nuh-uh, **__The child shook his head negatively, __**I don't see anyone else unless I'm sharing the space. I some people, sometimes...not a lot**_

_"What was it you just said? Space?" Logos lifted a sleek black brow, "Space of what?"_

_**The curse, you know? To share our pain that monster makes us go inside the person who touches one sphere. the one we're supposed to be in, you know? The one the monster told us not to ever leave, and then we can't leave the person until they're dead. Then, we're back in the spheres back in that horrible place until the next person comes. **__The child's tears came back in full force, shaking his trembling body, and making him wince with each passable breath, __**I'm so, s-so, sorry that I don't know what to do! **_

"_Stop crying!" _

_**But I! But I! But-**_

"_I said stop crying for the love of the Lady Luck!" Logos stood suddenly, making the child jolt and fall back onto his bottom roughly, before the gunner hoisted the child easily up by his ragged shirt, "Now enough games, tell me what is going to happen to me at the very least. I want details."_

_**Please mister-**_

"_I said tell me."_

_**Y-you'll die.**_

"_Details, boy."_

_The large wet eyes blinked, sending a thick trail of water down his round cheeks. The child shook his head, __**P-please. I've been so lonely…If I tell you, you won't wan-want to talk to me anymore. Y-you'll give up and die faster. I-I don't-**_

"_If you don't tell me, I'll die just the same, won't I? Tell me so I can try and stop it for you, you sniveling little brat. People like me don't just give up if we know something is coming to kill me." _

_**No? What do people like you do then? **_

"_We fight back, stupid. And if that doesn't work we run the hell away. But we don't just lay down and die like a pathetic dog. Does that please you child? I'm not going to just shoot myself in the head because this curse can do horrible things to me. I've got things to live for dammit! I have someone who told me that I won't accept death until I see it for myself, understand? Now speak up you little, snot-nosed simpleton." _

_**You won't be able to do anything…**_

"_I told you that I'm not going to just accept-!" _

_**No! You told me to tell you- **__The child started to back away, shaking with fresh tears and sadness, __**Y-you told me to tell you what the monster makes me do. I-I can't help it, y-you know? I can't stop what I felt back then-**_

"_Speak clearly, I can't understand a word-"_

_The boy shook his head again, over and over, __**You won't be able to help anyone. You'll be just like me…back then, when I wanted to help so badly. **_

"_You can't bind me to that-"_

_**You're blind now, so you won't be able to help. You'll be mad first, then sad, and then Mum will come. She always does. Then we go.**_

"_Wait, _we_?" Logos raised his head on his shoulders, "I'm not going anywhere, least of all with you or your deranged mother."_

_**You'll be dead. Then it will come and take us all away. You'll be stuck with the rest of them and not talk to me. You'll hate me. **__The child started biting his fingers, tears pouring out his eyes, __**You'll die, and your friends too probably. I-I'll try to stop it. I promise I will! But- but-**_

_**I don't know what to do. **_

"_Oh stop it!" Logos had an urge to hit the whiny child, which he fought patiently, "You never seem to know what to do, do you?"_

_**Then what are you going to do? What is there to do? Are you going to do something? What is it? What are you going to do?**_

"_I-" Logos opened his mouth, his eyes widening, before the words fell dead from his throat, echoing in his head. His room was gone, it was only misty darkness. The child was no where to be seen. _

"_**I don't know what to do."**_

* * *

**A/N: Ormi doesn't get much face time in this chapter, eh heh, sorry... **


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